Unforgotten Promises
by Akoru
Summary: It has been three years after the fall of Cocoon. Lightning and Fang developed a relationship during their l'cie journey, only to have the women she fell madly in love with stolen away from her forever. How will Lightning react when Fang and Vanille emerge back from crystal stasis when the soldier was all about to give up all hope? Lightning x Fang FLight.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Lightning's Memory

Rain rapidly slapped and dripped down the glass window as the midnight storm raged on in New Bodhum. Lightning rested herself on the edge of her couch inside her spacious elegant living room as she peered out the window above the door screen that led into her backyard. The pinkette formed a habit of watching the rain fall ever since the night after the l'cie gang first stepped foot into the Archylte Steppe. The makeshift group had all been asleep after constructing a small camp right outside the entrance to Mah'habara. With so much going inside the group leader's mind, Lightning saw no issue with taking first shift for guard duty.

Serah. Her beloved sister and only family left turned to crystal with little to no hope that she would ever see the girl again. The soldier grimaced as she wandered off outside of the cave and into the pouring rain of Pulse. The soldier shivered slightly as the cold droplets assaulted her tender pale skin but paid it no mind. She lived with so much regret and sorrow after what happened between the two sisters.

Lightning never was given the chance to apologize to Serah, never able to hold her and assure everything would be okay, that she would find a way to help her younger sister at any cost. But instead, she lashed out at her only sister in the girls time of need and now had possibly lost Serah forever.

Lightning felt burning in her eyes as tears started to threaten her vision and tried so desperately to retain them but ultimately failed as they escaped past her closed eyelids. The pink haired soldier struggled to prevent herself from sobbing and quickly was starting to lose the battle until she heard a familiar accent bellow out from outside the cave.

It was Fang. Lightning bit back her sobs and was lucky enough that the rain masked the flow of tears down her cheeks. The soldier was not one to show weakness and was not about to start now. Lightning turned around to meet the pulsian and at the best of her abilities, cleaned out her voice as she swallowed down the lumps in her throat.

"Light! It's pourin' out here. What're ya doin'?" Fang yelled past the cave as she attempted to raise her voice above the roaring thunder that filled the air. Light met the huntress half way and hung her head down not to meet Fang's emerald worried hues. Her voice rang out marginally shaken when she spoke. "I'm just checking out the area Fang..Why are you awake? Shouldn't you be sleeping with the others?" The pulsian stared at her for a moment before approaching the pinkette with a smile as she walked beside Lightning, taking up her hand with her own and pulled the soldier along.

Light struggled and attempted to squeeze out of the vice-like grip but Fang's stronger muscles was no match for the pinkette's own. "F-Fang! Let me go! What are you doing?!" Light roared but went silent as the huntress released the women's shaky hand. The water formed a barrier around them as it dripped from the cliff's overhang like a waterfall as Fang leaned against the rocks before slumping down.

She padded the area next to her, signaling Lightning to take a beat beside the tanned women. Light hesitated but eventually did so but decided to stand up instead as she leaned back against the solid rock wall behind her. Fang decided to speak up then. "What's on your mind light? You've been acting troubled all day and that's normally not like stoic strong emotionless leader we see now is it?"

Fang teased as Lightning did not dignify her with a response, instead stared down at her feet before puffing the wet pink strands from her face. The huntress sighed. Normally her quips would be returned with either a glare or a swinging punch but she got squat. This only caused Fang to worry that much more and decided to take a much more serious approach. Only one thing would get the soldier into one of these moods and the pulsian was quick to figure it out. Fang tilted her head down as she started to fiddle with her sari as she spoke out in a much more gentle tone.

"It's Serah isn't it?" Lightning tensed up and gazed down at Fang. This was her own problem and would deal with it herself, Fang had no right to discuss this with her. Light was about to speak up but went silent again as the huntress went on.

"I was the same you know..when I got separated from Vanille back on Cocoon. Not being there with her..not being able to protect her I felt powerless. Me and Vanille grew up together and it felt like it's my responsibility to look after her. Every minute I spent worrying about her the harder the guilt felt. Though there was no doubt in my mind that Vanille was able to handle herself and come to find out, I was right."

Lightning released her tension as she let herself relax and listened on to Fang's story where gradually slumped down the wall to seat herself beside the pulsian. Their shoulders touched briefly and the contact, as short as it was, sent sparks through Fang's body. The huntress noticed it immediately, shocked at how far and how sudden she had fallen for Lightning. But there was no time to dwell on emotions and feelings, Fang just wanted to make sure the soldier was ready for tomorrow..or at least she continued to tell herself that.

Fang tilted her head to the side to meet the soldiers crystal blue hues reflecting her piercing emeralds. "Light what I'm trying to say is..don't doubt Serah or yourself. Trust yourself and we will see this through and Serah will be waiting right around the corner for ya." Fang smiled weakly as she dared her hand to sneak over to capture Lightning's gloved counterpart. The soldier jumped gently at the contact but made no effort to remove her hand from Fang's.

At that moment, Lightning's face flushed a bright pink as she felt the similar spark soar through inside her. She watched the pulsian's tanned fingers intertwine with her own before looking up to meet Fang's gentle and caring eyes. "You will see her again Light..I promise."

Lightning for once after this l'cie journey had started to feel some reassurance. The heat flushed to her cheeks once more as the women's fingers tightened their hold around the pulsians. Both they rested against the rock wall, watching the rain as it poured down viciously in every direction. All fell silent for a few minutes until Fang tilted her head to the side as she felt Lightning's weight pressing into her side. It seemed Lightning had fallen asleep rather quickly, the women was incredibly gifted with the way the l'cie leader hid everything behind a facade.

Lightning's emotional wall was structured to be almost impenetrable. She never allowed anyone to get to know her personally, to get close to her, or even exchange simple physical contacts such as hugs. Though almost never meant impossible. Fang managed to do the unthinkable and started to tear down Lightning Farron's emotional wall piece by piece.

The huntress smiled at the thought as she wrapped her arm around the soldiers shoulder, bringing her in closer. Lightning's head instinctively fell into the nook of Fang's neck and snuggled closer into the women. Lightning's breathing started to steady as the huntress supported the women's full weight into her, which wasn't much. Fang knew she was probably in for a beating when Lightning found out about this, so she wanted to make the most of it while she could. A lazy grin plastered itself across Fang's lips as they were pressing through the wet pink strands of the pinkette and immediately took in the women's scent.

The pulsians eyes closed as she hummed in delight of the flower like scent, soon losing herself in the intoxicating smell. Fang scratched softly and massaged the length of Lightning's shoulder as Fang soon found herself dozing off shortly after. That night had been three years ago. Fang with all her promises she made, all the times she reassured her the two would be together after the l'cie business was dealt with, all the times she felt those full lips taking in her own, whisking her breath away every time. Lightning never wanted to believe all those promises and moments weren't all for nothing, not just lies.

As time went on, however, the soldier slowly started to lose more faith after each year had passed. The pain in her heart ached to unbearable heights every time she went to visit Fang and Vanille at the crystal pillar. The former l'cie gang made it a tradition to visit every year, Lightning agreed to go but several times she went alone, just to grieve and let everything out while no one was around to see her in such weakness. She explained everything to Serah when the girl came back to live with her shortly before moving in with Snow only a year later she got released from crystal.

The younger farron attempted to help heal Lightning's broken heart but the older farron wouldn't have any of it. Not only was she trying to avoid hindering Serah with her own issues with the wedding being planned, she also preferred not to think about it so much. It was nice to talk about the pulsians though and all they went through together. If it was not for Fang being there for her time and time again, setting her straight when she needed to be and holding her in times of doubt and despair, she wasn't sure what would have happened.

Lightning was pulled away from her thoughts as she heard consistent knocking on her door. The soldier sighed as she pulled herself up from the couch, it was probably Serah again. The younger farron had made it her mission to force Lightning to help her plan the wedding between her and Snow. Despite her multiple protests, the soldier could not bring herself to say no to her persistent sister.

As Lightning neared the door, the knocking started to become more insistent. "Hold on! I'm coming already!" The pinkette flung the door open as she rubbed the tears from her eyes as she spoke. "Serah I told you I don't want to be involved-" Lightning froze as soon she opened her eyes to see the familiar red headed pulsian standing at her doorstep. The girl was soaked with her red pigtails sagging down to her shoulders. Lightning couldn't believe what she was seeing. Vanille was back.

**Author's Note: Hey guys! This happens to be my first FanFic and I'm happy to be a part of this community! I do apologize that this opening was a bit short but I promise future updates will be much larger, not to worry :D. Also there was no beta reader for this but I made sure to go back and fix what I could. I would greatly appreciate some reviews and feedback from you guys and thanks for taking the time to read this.**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: The Return

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Lightning stood at the edge of her doorway being only able to stare at the girl in front of her. Vanille, Fang's adopted sister who the soldier assumed was never going to see again. Though here she was, drenched in rain with a troubled frown across her face. Vanille looked up to meet Lightning's dumbfounded gaze. "Hiya light..It's been a while huh?" Lightning rubbed at her eyes once more, thinking maybe this wall some sort of twisted dream her mind was teasing her with, but once she reopened them the redhead was still there though with now a confused expression shaping her face.

Convinced that the girl in front of her was finally real, Lightning shook out of the trance she found herself in before moving herself to the edge of the door. "Please come in." Vanille nodded and waltzed inside the soldiers home, trailing muddy footsteps along the living room floor as she went on but Lightning paid it no mind. The soldier signaled the pulsian to stay put while she scurried off to the bathroom to retrieve some towels. "Here, you look like you may need these." Lightning tossed a few towels in Vanille's direction and the girl caught them effortlessly.

As the girl continued to dry herself off, Lightning felt the anxiety burning up inside her. Where was Fang? Was she alright? Had she returned from stasis as well? Too many questions to ask and not enough time. Right at the moment Vanille dropped the towel from her face, the soldier was quick to get her attention. "Do you know where Fang is? You said the last time you two awoke from the last stasis you was together on Cocoon. Shouldn't she have been there with you?"

Lightning wanted to forgive her aggressive questioning so soon, the girl did just wake up after all but she needed answers. Vanille's expression dropped as she let her arms dangle around her hips, toying with her feathered dress as a excuse not to meet Lightning's piercing gaze. "I-I don't know what happened. I Just woke up right outside the pillar and I didn't see Fang anywhere." Vanille could notice the soldiers shoulder slump almost immediately. She could see Lightning close her eyes viciously and started to look away from the younger pulsian, the soldiers heart was hurting intensely. Vanille saw how bad Lightning was hurting, so she quickly attempted to rephrase her sentence.

"Maybe Fang awoke at a different area around the pillar! She may have also gotten up before me and tried to find her way here too. Light I'm sure she'll be-" Before Vanille could finish, Lightning heard all that she needed to. She hurried off into her bedroom to gather a few supplies, she wasn't about to give up on Fang, even if there was a small to no chance of finding her, she would never give up on her lover. Lightning quickly tugged her holstered gunblade from the counter and turned to swing open her dresser. Wasting no time, she grabbed a leather coat and slipped it on as jogged to the kitchen. Without hesitation, she swung the fridge door open and packed a few water bottles, in case Fang happened to be dehydrated.

The soldier kneed the fridge door closed and tossed a water bottle to Vanille, who stumbled backwards and juggled to object before finally gripping it, still mildly confused. "Light what are you doing? It's pouring outside and it's dangerous-" She froze up as Lightning faced her with a glare before opening the door. "Stay here, If she's out there then I will find her." With that said, Lightning exited the house before slamming the door shut behind her. Vanille sighed as she plumped down onto the couch, exhausted from the long walk to get to Lightning's apartment. She couldn't help but worry about her adoptive sister and best friend, she could only hope Lightning would find her. She had to.

Lightning rushed to her velocycle parked right outside the women's garage and quickly hopped on the vehicle. Ignoring. With a flick of a switch, the vehicle started to power up slowly as Lightning started revving the gas, hoping it would power up faster. Her efforts finally had paid off when the engine kicked on and wasted no time throwing it into reverse. Pressing on the gas, she pulled the handlebars accordingly to twist the cycle facing forward before soaring off into the air.

With Lightning's foot smashing into the gas paddle, it was about ten minutes until the pillar really started to come into view. The soldier scanned the open plains and nearby forests as she hovered around them, making circles around the crystal pillar as she went. After close to twenty minutes of searching, a figure stood out just below here, it looked to be someone walking and using something to prop them up, like a cane of some sort.

Finding it important to investigate, she twirled the velocycle in mid air and flew towards ground level. Even if the person was not Fang, they could still need some help as Gran Pulse was not a very safe place for travelers who was not well prepared. Lightning's eyes narrowed as the humanly figure started to become more and more clear. The figure wore some sort of traditional pulsian clothing, it looked just like a sari but she wasn't sure just yet. Though the image enough made Lightning's blood rush and felt her heart skip a couple beats.

Lightning started to near ground level swiftly and as the figure came into full view now, it was a women. Tall with tanned skin, wearing a blue sari, using a spear as a walking prop, Lightning had no doubt that she found her. She had found Fang. Lightning decelerated the vehicle and landed it ahead of Fang. Lightning practically leapt off the vehicle and ran towards her lover as she witnessed Fang collapse onto the ground. The soldier felt her heart sink into her chest when she knelt down beside the pulsian. Fang's clothes had been clawed and slashed open by some local fauna, Lightning quickly started examining the women of any serious injuries.

Luckily, there was only a few cuts around the women's abdomen and upper arms, though she had a nasty gash in her hip that would need medical attention soon, but nothing life threatening. As soon as was about to lift up her injured friend, she heard movement of multiple entities scurrying behind her. Lightning's natural reflexes kicked in when her gunblade flung from its holster and twisted into its bladed form as she twisted around.

Hedge frogs. The small pack of amphibians surrounded the pair of former l'cie ready to attack. As if right on cue, the three frogs pounced towards Lightning at once. With a flick of her wrist, her gunblade cut clean through the belly of one of her victims and ducked under the two other hostiles. Lightning's head was drenched in the monsters blood and what looked to be a liver slide down her shoulder to the ground. The soldier wiped the blood from her eyes and was given no break as the monsters began their attack once again, pouncing towards the women.

She sidestepped the first attacker as it aimed for her chest, bringing her blade clean through the center of the amphibian and was dead before it even hit the ground. Simultaneously , she gripped the remaining frog's tail and swung it straight into the ground, promptly then shoving her boot straight into its windpipe. Now that they was safe for the time being, Lightning dropped down beside Fang, draping her arms around the soldiers neck and lifted her up fireman carry style. Figuring the huntress would like her spear back when she woke up, Lightning knelt down to retrieve the weapon before making her way back to the cycle.

Lightning maneuvered herself on the vehicle so Fang could lay across the soldiers lap on her stomach. She could practically feel the pulsians stomach growling for food, signaling that she should probably head back quickly. Lightning flicked the switch and watched as the velocycle come to life in seconds and before long, she set back off into the sky and back to New Bodhum. Luckily it had stopped raining, so the trip back wouldn't be too bad to navigate her way back.

The soldier found it wise not to go too fast, as she had Fang's spear in one hand with a handlebar in another so it only seemed smart that she should take her time. Fang was not in need for immediate care, so there was no huge rush. Lightning looked and smiled down at her lover, who was now snoring so loud she could faintly hear over the cycles motor. The soldier closed her eyes as the cool autumn wind swept through her pink locks and began to reflect on all that had just happened in just a short time.

Lightning could not help but think this was all still a dream. She had countless dreams over the past three years about being reunited with her lover. Some she went and took Snow's approach and started to hack away at their crystal bodies until they were broken free. Some dreams Fang would just pop up on her doorstep like Vanille had just did and everything started to go back to normal. Then there was the nightmares, which she had way too often.

The nightmares varied just as much as her dreams. Some of which Fang did return, but did not remember anything that happened during their journey together and not even remember who Lightning even was to begin with. Then there was the horrid nightmares that taken place back during their journey together where Lightning had to witness Fang get killed each and every time. Whether it was from a stray bullet, a juggernaut fist coming down on her, or even becoming a cie'th just to spend a little more time with Lightning and avoided the fate that she was destined for. To become Ragnarok and destroy Cocoon.

Back then, it was all too much to take. Her mind teasing her with a mixture of both hope and despair. The dreams and nightmares started to become more and more frequent where it started to become common for Lightning to wake up to find herself in tears. Nobody knew of her inner turmoil, not even Serah, at least not all of what was happening. Lightning had told Serah about her relationship with Fang, but nothing about how badly it eat at her inside.

So she started to become fully devoted to the Guardian Corps to find some sort of escape. Lightning grabbed all the hours she could get and worked constantly for three years. Her work paid off well, she was now considered wealthy now being a high ranking officer but it all was not enough. Amodar had forced her to take some days off and when she did, the pain and memories consumed her. For three years there was a giant hole inside of her that was never full or satisfied. There was always something missing in her life and she knew exactly what it was, ached for it so badly but always knew she would never have it. She would never have Fang again.

It seemed ironic to her that she shut herself off from love all these years, for Serah's sake she continued to tell herself and only to finally meet someone worthy of her love, to have that said person ripped away and out of her life forever. All of it was so unfair. She hated herself for even falling for Fang, wished she never had even met the women so that she would never had experienced this unbearable pain, but she did meet Fang and did fall in love with her.

Lightning felt relieved and thankful that she hung in there the past three years, never once giving up on her lover. Her countless prayers to Etro was finally answered, the goddess herself gave Lightning's one and only true lover back to her. She was so relieved to have her back that she just wanted to latch onto Fang and cry her heart out. She also wanted to beat Fang back into a coma for breaking the promises Fang made to her back in Sulyya Springs, that the pulsian would never leave her side, that they would get through this together.

Though Fang, willing or not, did come through with her promises as here she was, laying across her lap comfortably asleep it seemed. Lightning brought her eyes back up from Fang and in front of her, New Bodhum was starting to finally come back into view. Serah had spent the last three years learning to become a doctor and now was a nurse at a local clinic. The medical equipment was not as advanced as it was back in Cocoon but it still was very effective none the less.

Since Fang's injury was not lethal as well as Lightning not wanting random strangers working on her girlfriend, she figured it was best to bring her by Serah's house. Snow's place had two bedrooms, one of which him and Serah shared after she moved in and a guest bedroom which they was thinking about making a nursery out of in case they wanted a child anytime soon. For Snow's sake, she hoped that was not going to be happening anytime in the near future.

As they entered the small settlement of New Bodhum, Lightning started to decelerate the vehicle and started to slowly hover towards ground level. The soldier had Serah and Snow's apartment location memorized and found it effortlessly as she brought the velocycle to a full stop and parked it right outside their garage. Lightning backed up gently to let Fang's limp body rest on the seat of the vehicle before hopping down. She quickly made her way back to the pulsian and scooped her up bridal style and huffed, the women was a lot heavier then she looked.

Lightning struggled as she hurried herself to the couples door and began knocking frantically. After about the fifteenth knock, she started to hear soft padded footsteps hurrying to the door and heard the door being unlocked from the inside before the door opened to reveal the younger farron. Serah was about to question Lightning to no end about why she had waken her up this late with work in the morning but could only gawk. She stared at Lightning then to the tanned tribal women in her arms.

"Light is that..the women who you was telling me about?" Serah asked nervously but before she could receive an answer, Lighting pushed past her to gently drop the pulsian onto the couples large couch before turning back to meet her sister. "Yeah..that's Fang. Vanille came to my house and told me that she had woken up but she had no idea where Fang was. I'm not sure how long ago she woke up from stasis but I found her limping a few miles away from the pillar. She seems pretty hurt, I was hoping actually if you could take a look at her."

Serah nodded before jogging towards the guest room where all the medical equipment had been stored. Lightning took the moment to reach into her pack that was strapped around her waist to grab one of the water bottles she got from earlier and tugged it out. She walked towards the couch where Fang lay and set the bottle on the small table beside the piece of furniture as Serah quickly hurried back to the living room.

The smaller pinkette returned with a some rubbing alcohol, rags, bandages, stitches, scissors, and a stethoscope wrapped around the back of her neck. Serah maneuvered the end of the stethoscope to Fang's chest as she plugged the ear pieces in. She moved the object around a few times, monitoring the pulsians heart beat. Satisfied with the results, Serah retracted the object and tugged the ear pieces out before looking back at the anxiously awaiting sister. "Her heart beat is steady so I think she'll be fine." The young pink haired doctor then went to pull examine the numerous scratches and the gash in her hip and as she started to prep the rags with alcohol, Snow waltzed into the room yawning wearing nothing but a black t-shirt and some shorts that matched.

"Hey sis! I knew I could have sworn I heard your voice-woah! Is that Fang?!" Snow immediately went to the edge of the couch but Lightning was quick to put a hand on his chest firmly as she started to push him away. "Shut up you idiot can't you see she's sleeping!" she hushed. "Come on, let's go outside and I'll tell you about it. We need to let Serah bandage her up in peace." Snow agreed and followed Lightning out the screen door that led to the couples patio. Snow closed the door behind him and took a seat in one of the lounging chairs nearby. Lightning did the same.

"How did you find her?" he asked blatantly. Lightning then went on to repeat what she had just explained to Serah moments ago and Snow just looked at her dumbfounded before finally regaining the ability to speak. "Hah, I knew all along they would get out one way or another. Fang's too stubborn to stay locked up for too long right?" Lightning silently agreed but stayed quiet for the most part as she stared off into the night sky. Snow's tone started to soften then. "I'm glad to see their back. Things just weren't the same without those two here causing all sorts of trouble." He said with a goofy grin plastering across his face. "Does anybody else know their back? I can give Hope and Sazh a call-"

"No!" she interrupted. "Nobody else needs to know just yet. Whenever Fang wakes up she's going to need some time to rest. We don't need everyone bugging and harassing her with questions when she just got back." Part of that was true, but Lightning mainly wanted Fang to herself for a while. Even back when they was l'cie, the two never really had much privacy with Vanille and Hope snooping about. Snow let out a defeated sigh before agreeing with the pinkette. Snow knew better to try and change Lightning's mind about something she felt strongly about.

Silence fell between the two for a few minutes as they took in the night sky. Stars filled almost every inch of space above them and Lightning found it gorgeous. You could never see the stars in Cocoon, nothing like this. Everything Fang told them about Gran Pulse was true in every sense of the word. The place was not like hell as all the foolish and misguided Cocoonian's believed it to be, it was the opposite in fact, heaven. Lightning remembered how naive she was back before she was a l'cie. She was just another falsely led sheep that was taught to believe pulse was nothing but a horrid place where everyone feared to go. How wrong she was.

The silent broke when the screen door opened to reveal Serah peeking her head out. "Fang had a few minor injuries excluding the gash but it will heal in time. She'll need new stitches for it later on so just drop by here or the clinic and I can replace them for you. Other than that, everything else I was able to bandage up pretty easily, I think she'll be just fine and should wake up soon actually. Lightning felt herself relax instantly and smiled uncontrollably. Fang was safe.

Lightning pulled herself up from the wooden seat and returned back into the house and peered down at the sleeping form beside her. The soldier switched her gaze from Fang to her sister and smiled warmly before she brought Serah into an embrace. "Thank you Serah..I really appreciate this." Serah smiled in turn and returned the loving embrace with her own. The two stayed like that for a while before Lightning pulled back. "No problem, I was happy to help."

Serah then looked to Snow who was now in the kitchen, searching through the fridge. "Hey babe! Can you clean out the guest room and make the bed for Fang?" Snow returned the milk to the fridge before he could start preparing his breakfast and made his way into the guest room before giving Serah a kiss on the forehead as he passed by. "Yeah sure thing." Snow swiftly disappeared as he exited the living room and into the hallway to the guest room. Lightning then decided to take this time to leave, before the big lug could return.

The soldier walked over to Fang and bent down to her knees as she started to run her fingers through Fang's wild brown locks. The pulsian was drop dead gorgeous and Lightning could never get enough of her. She wanted nothing more than to just climb onto the couch and snuggle up to Fang and waited for her to wake up, but Vanille was still anxiously awaiting her to come back with the news. So instead, she rested her hands on the tanned cheeks and planted a firm kiss on the women's forehead.

She held the kiss a few seconds before reluctantly pulling herself away. Serah meanwhile was staring at her sister with a mixture of glee and confusion. Lightning never showed affection to anyone other than herself. She was also very happy for her sister to finally find it in her heart to actually fall in love with someone, her sister deserved to be happy and have someone protect and watch out over her for a change. The smaller pinkette was broken out of her thoughts as Lightning pushed back up to her feet and walked up to her.

"I have to head back, Vanille I'm sure will want to know that Fang's awake and safe. Thanks again, for everything." Lightning hugged Serah tightly, giving her forehead a swift peck as well before she pulled herself back. "I'll be back by tomorrow to come and check up on her. I'll call Amodar in the morning and let him know I'll be taking the day off. I'm sure he won't mind, he's been trying to force me to take vacation time I have built up." Serah only nodded in response and walked with Lightning to the door. The soldier opened the door and stopped mid-way outside of the door. "I'll be brining Vanille by as well. You can use some of my gil if you decide to go shopping, Vanille will probably need some few extra clothes." Serah smiled and shook her head at the kind offer. "It's fine Claire I can take care of it. So I'll be seeing you tomorrow then?" Lightning smiled and nodded as she started to close the door. "Bye Serah." The door closed behind her and made her way back to the velocycle.

Lightning hesitated before getting on the vehicle, instead looking back up at the stars once more. It seems prayers and wishes do come true after all. Lightning smiled at the thought before climbing onto the vehicle and strode off towards her home which was only a mile down the beach. Only a few minutes passed until Lightning made it back to her house, pulling into her yard and parking the vehicle beside her doorstep. The soldier lazily hopped off the vehicle and slowly walked up to the door. She was both emotionally and physically exhausted, so much had happened in just a short time it, it was too much to take in one night.

As the pinkette opened the door to her home, she found Vanille passed out on the couch, resting on her side facing the cushions. Lightning smiled slightly as she disappeared into the hall and into the closet to grab a spare blue quilt that used to belong to Serah when she was a child. Returning to the room, she approached the sleeping pulsian before folding out and covering the quilt over the sleeping girl. Lightning never was really fond of Vanille when they had first met. The young girl was nosy, annoying, and always in the way. But as time went on and the more time she spent with Fang, the more she started to become attached to them both.

Vanille was also the only thing closest to family Fang had and Lightning would respect that. It wouldn't be too bad once she thought about it, the young red head was just a more bouncy and perkier version of Serah. Fang and Vanille both did save Cocoon after all as well as giving Serah back to her. Lightning could not imagine how she would repay them, but treating Vanille as if she was a member of her own family would be a start. When the younger pulsian was fully tucked in, Lightning smiled faintly as she watched the sleeping figure on her couch before treading off into her own room to do the same.

The soldier disappeared out of the living room, into the hallway, and up the stairs that led to her fairly large room. Lightning opened and closed the door as she entered, making her way to the closet where she started to peel off the rain and blood smeared garments. After retrieving some new clothes, she walked out the door and into the bathroom to take a quick shower before bed. Setting the fresh pair of clothes beside the towels, she twisted the knobs as the shower nozzle started to spray out the warm droplets.

Stepping into the shower, she started ponder on what tomorrow might bring. Would Fang wake up? Was it going to be like her nightmares and Fang would not even remember who she was? Did Fang still love her after all this time? More and more questions started to fill her mind, only to worsen her impatience. Lightning sighed and forced herself to calm down, she would see Fang in the morning, but for now she needed to keep cool and think about what's she going to do now that the women in back.

Going over scenarios in her head on how to deal with the press, fans, and media she stepped outside of the shower grabbing a towel to dry off with. It was no secret that the two pulsians was the famed heroes that saved Cocoon from its destruction. So when the community found out the two were alive and well, no doubt the two would get constantly harassed with questions and all sorts of media garbage. Lightning had a few strings she could pull in the Guardian Corps to prevent that from happening anytime soon thankfully, she would have to give Hope a call soon.

The pinkette dropped the towel before starting to redress into her moogle pajamas. Lightning hated them with a burning passion but it was a birthday gift from Serah, so she had to wear them. The pinkette exited the bathroom and returned back to her room before dropping into her soft cold silk sheets. Curling up into the bed, Lightning was quick to fall asleep. She would finally be with Fang again.

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**Author's Notes: Here is a update for you guys! I really appreciate all the kind reviews it means a lot to me and I hope to hear more from you guys as time goes on :D. Also I was a tad bit iffy on writing the hedge frog scene, I'm not too great at writing action scenes just yet but there will be more to come later on so I hope to improve until then. Fang is officially going to be in the next update, I was going to throw her in this chapter but I did not want to make this chapter too incredibly long. Anyways thanks for reading and I hope you guys enjoy it!**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Awakening

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Lightning awoke early at the sound of her alarm clock buzzing off at seven in the morning. With a grumble, the soldier lazily unveiled a hand from the covers to come slapping down on the device, silencing it immediately. She forgot to call Amodar the night before to explain her current situation that she would need to take some vacation time off. With that in mind, she swept the covers from her lithe body and hung her down past the edge of bed before slipping into a pair of moogle slippers that came with the pajamas Serah gifted her.

The pinkette sleepily sauntered over to her nightstand to retrieve the women's cell phone and quick-dialed Amodar's office. The device ringed through three times before Lightning could hear the older man's familiar voice pick up. "Lightning? I didn't expect you to be calling at this hour. Your shift does not start for another two hours. Something going on?"

Lightning fought back the urge to yawn as she was still in the process of waking up fully. "No everything is fine..I just had a few things come up and I was calling about my vacation time I have saved up. Would it be alright if I could take the week off?" The soldier could hear the man letting out a hearty laugh on the other end before replying. "Of course! I've been trying to get you to take some time off for months now! I'm know sure what came up but it has to be pretty important to take a full week off. I think we'll be able to manage a full week without you here."

Lightning grabbed her brush from the nightstand and proceeded to brush down her hair while speaking. "Thank you sir. I really appreciate this." Lightning said flatly. "Hey don't mention it! Good luck with whatever you have going on, I'll see you on Monday morning." As early as it was, the old man still seemed to be full of energy as always. "Of course sir. Thank you again." Lightning then flipped the device down ending the call before returning the small phone back to the nightstand.

The pinkette swept her fingers through the already wild bed head as she made her way to the closet to retrieve some new clothes. The forecast mentioned mildly cold weather all week, it was late fall after all, so the soldier picked out her favorite red scarf and a yellow chocobo-feathered jacket. Tossing the two to her bed, she resumed her search and decided on a pair of faded blue jeans with a long sleeve blue t-shirt with some gloves.

Lightning stripped down to her under garments and wasted no time throwing on the small pile of clothes that had been tossed onto the edge of her bed. Pulling the shirt down her body, she kicked off the moogle slippers before slipping into a pair of chocobo-faced sandals. After she had gotten fully dressed the women practically busted through the door in a rush and down the stairs to the living room to meet a still-sleeping Vanille sprawled out across her couch.

With a impatient glare forming across her lips, Lightning gave the smaller pulsian a few pokes to the cheek as if that would be enough to wake her. The red head only groaned and rolled over onto her back, shielding her eyes from the sunlight that was now radiating from her living room window. She was definitely Fang's sister alright. Since the previous attempt failed she would have to try something more aggressive. Without giving it much thought, Lightning leaned down and started to shake the women impatiently.

"Get up already!" Vanille yelped out in surprise and jumped up, almost bumping heads with the soldier was now giving the smaller pulsian a death glare. Vanille balled her fists and started to rub the tiredness away from her eyes before opening her eyes to mere slits. "Light? What's going on?" Lightning gave the red head a dreary look before she continued.

"It's Fang. I found her not too far from the pillar..she was pretty beat up when I found her so I brought her to Serah to patch her up. Serah told me she'll be okay." Vanille's eyes opened to the size of oranges and immediately leapt off the couch before wrapping herself around Lightning's middle, jumping with excitement.

"See? I told you she was going to wake up sooner or later!" She squealed and proceeded to snuggle into Lightning's stomach. The soldier let a smile work its way across her lips as she folded her arms around the younger women at a attempt to contain the pulsians excitement. Lightning was just as ecstatic but she preferred to show it differently and more privately rather than Vanille who was so open with her emotional outbursts.

The perky pulsian stepped a few steps back out of the soldiers embrace but continued to hold on to the women's wrists. "You said she's resting at Serah's house? Doesn't she live just down the beach from here? Well what are we sitting around here for? Let's go see her!" The redhead exclaimed as she made a dash for the door where she stopped to look behind her toward the soldier. Lightning was confused for a moment on how the red head even knew where her younger sister lived to begin with but then realized she had the address taped to the fridge.

Vanille then proceeded to beckon the soldier over impatiently when Lightning just stood in the same spot, lost in her thoughts. "Come on! I know how excited you are to be there when she wakes up so we can't waste any time! Chop-chop."

Lightning snapped back to attention then as the pulsian exited the house and was skipping down the beach towards her sisters and future husbands home. With a grin, the soldier walked nonchalantly through the open door and bringing it to a full close where a satisfying lock was heard. The soldier followed the pulsians path down the beach with a light jog, taking in the cool morning air gusting through the pink locks.

Lightning being true to her name, was already starting to catch up to the red head on just a jog alone. Vanille twisted her gaze to the left side of her as Lightning started to match her pace down the beach. "Wow you really are fast huh? Is that why everyone decided to call you "Lightning"? she asked in awe. Lightning's brows furrowed as she looked on towards the twos impending destination. "No. I gave myself that nickname a long time ago after I lost my parents."

Lightning's blue icy hues turned to meet her counterparts and for the first time Vanille saw what looked to be a genuine smile coming from the emotionless cold-hearted women. It actually frightened her more than the soldiers already-menacing glare. "I'll have to tell you about it sometime." The soldier soft in a remarkably softer tone. Vanille was in shock. Lightning used to never be this nice to anyone, at least back on their journey anyway. Fang must have made a huge impact on her.

Vanille was ripped away from her thoughts as they started to approach a two story home which what she assumed where Serah and Snow lived. With the younger farron being a doctor and Snow being a full time security officer at the local bars, the home was easily affordable for the two. Lightning walked up the steps leading to the door before giving it a few gentle knocks. Vanille walked up to the soldiers side and waited until she heard the all-too-familiar soft padded footsteps approaching the door.

The door was pulled inwardly open to reveal the smaller pinkette in her flan-pokadotted pajamas. Lightning immediately found them to be incredibly ridiculous. Serah still acted so much like a child and now apparently dressed just like one as well. Serah could almost feel Lightning's judging look pierce through her as her face started to flush to mimic the color of her hair.

"O-Oh hey sis." Serah's view turned to meet the pulsians. "Oh hey Vanille! It's so good to see you again!" The two younger girls both giggled and embraced themselves into a tight hug. Lightning chuckled lightly at the display before she decided to walk past the two, letting herself in. Her vision was directed towards the kitchen which was occupied by Snow, preparing breakfast from what it looked like. The younger farron had the man whipped and tied around her little innocent fingers.

Lightning knew how dangerous and manipulative her little sister could be, probably picking it up from herself. Snow caught the women's entrance almost instantly and waved. "Morning sis!" Lightning flinched at the annoying nickname the brute decided to give her, lucky for him she was in one of the best moods she felt in her entire life since last night. "Hey. What are you making in here? It doesn't smell all to awful."

The pinkette went inside the kitchen to investigate and found eggs being cooked on a skillet with a side of bacon. Very typical and average breakfast, Snow never was one to be all that creative. The tall blonde-headed man turned to look at his future sister-in-law with that same goofy expression he was renowned for. "You hungry at all? I've made plenty." Lightning shook her head. "No thanks. I'm not really that hungry." she kindly refused.

Snow nodded before returning to the meal, flipping the eggs and bacon as they sizzled in the skillets. Lightning took a moment to take a look behind her to see what the younger girls was up to as they moved their conversation to the living room. Serah was sitting across from Vanille on their tanned couch who decided to take the liberty to stretch her legs out across the other end of the furniture. From what Lightning could hear, Serah was currently filling in Vanille on all that happened on Gran Pulse the last three years.

Lightning then returned her attention back to the younger farrons fiancé who never moved from his current position in front of the stove. "Has..Fang gotten up at all since yesterday? Is she doing okay?" The soldier attempted to avoid coming off too needy and pushy so she decided to limit down her questioning. Snow stopped what he was doing before meeting the women's eyes. "Yeah..she got up a few times in the middle of the night. Serah went to go check on her and she was mumbling something in her sleep. That's all that she told me anyway I was asleep through it all. "

Lightning only nodded in response before walking out of the kitchen and into the living room to meet with the two younger girls. "Hey Serah, Snow was telling me Fang was talking in her sleep? Did you happen to hear anything she was saying last night?" Serah shook her head. "I never got close enough to actually hear what she was saying. I only just listened in through the door, I didn't want to wake her up or anything."

The soldier did not want to believe that this was anything serious but she still found herself becoming more and more increasingly worried. It could have been a odd side effect of crystal stasis and perhaps was still stuck in her dreams. Lightning gritted her teeth at the thought before investigating further. "Serah are you sure you didn't hear anything at all? I need to know, it could be important."

Serah's attention dropped to her feet and fiddled with her fingers before responding. "I did hear a few things but I just pushed them off as normal sleep talking but.." Lightning started to fidget as her patience was starting to grow thin. "Well what was it?" The older farron spoke harsher then what she originally attended and caused Serah to jump a bit. "S-She just called you by name a few times..not by Lightning but your real name..Claire.."

Lightning shivered slightly at that. Fang had only spoken her real name once and that was during a very intimate moment in Sulyya Springs. There wasn't any way Fang was reliving that memory was she? The soldiers face started to matched the color of a tomato as Serah reluctantly continued. "Then um..I heard something that sounded like moaning...then..then she said something about spanking her-"

"Enough we get it!" Lighting roared. The women's face could not have gotten more red at that very moment. She felt embarrassed as well as enraged that Fang would blurt out something like that, asleep or not. Serah did not need to know about the intimate moments between her and Fang. Lightning then turned to Vanille who was now giggling uncontrollably. "Oh Fang never told me that story! You little vixen, seducing my older sister like that!" the younger pulsian teased.

"Shut up!" was all the embarrassed women could counter with. Quick to change the subject, Lightning turned her gaze back to Serah. "Speaking of Fang, is it okay if we could see her?" Serah smiled, glad to be off the hook from that other conversation and not having to reveal the full story that would forever scar her. The smaller pinkette got up from the couch and signalled for the others to follow as they traveled into the hallway and to the guest bedroom.

Serah opened the door quietly as she could and there lay the sleeping brunette sprawled out on the bed. Lightning and Vanille both walked into the room silently where Serah watched from the doorway. Vanille was the first to approach the bed and gently bring her head down to rest onto Fang's chest. The older pulsians heart kept a steady remedy beat that the red head was so used to falling asleep to.

Vanille smiled and rested there for a few short moments before finally getting back up and returned to Lightning's side. "Looks like Serah was right. She looks to be doing alright. I know you would like some one-on-one time with her so I'll go outside and talk to Serah, just try to keep your clothes on before I come back yeah?" Lightning turned around to give the younger pulsian a death glare but was only met with the girl's backside as she skipped happily outside of the room.

The older pinkette rolled her eyes at the display and turned back to meet her sleeping lover. She could hear the door close behind her as Serah and Vanille returned back to the living room before Lightning took the opportunity to approach the bed. She slowly raised a gloved hand to gently stroke across the tanned women's cheek and through the brown wild mane.

Closing her eyes in delight, she savored every moment of contact that she so foolishly refused to do back when they were l'cie. Lightning stopped her trailing hands at the back of Fang's head as she dove down to deliver a kiss to the brunette's forehead. She held the kiss for as long as possible until she felt strong arms wrap around her waist to tug her down on the bed.

Yelping in surprise, the pulsian pulled the pinkette on top of herself with ease as Lightning just lay there in shock. Fang's eyelids slowly ascended open to reveal the green emerald hues that hid beneath. The soldier's heart skipped a beat as her body refused to move and even lost the ability to speak. Fang's lips twitched into a smile which almost caused the soldier to faint alone as the two lay there, staring into one another's eyes.

Fang was the first to speak as the pulsians hands started to trail lazy circles up and down the women's back who still seemed to be petrified. "Now that's a sight I could get used to waking up to." the accented voice came out as a broken whisper though Lightning fully understood her. Just hearing her voice again was enough to bring the flow of tears out. Fang's smiled twitched to a more gentle expression as she felt the soldiers tears start to fall and drip onto her own cheeks. Lightning's voice broke as she finally regained the ability to speak.

"F-Fang..I missed you so much..Here I thought I would never see you again..after all those promises you told me that we would figure out how to beat it..how to beat our focus and survive together." Lightning's hands balled into fists as she went on. "I never wanted to forgive you for what you did..You stole my heart away just to toss me to the side as you went on to save Cocoon and be trapped in crystal for Etro knows how long..Fang I didn't know what to do without you..I was lost."

The huntress could only stare up at her hurt soul mate as she started to just let everything out that she had stored away for so long. Fang tightened the embrace, holding the soldier to her chest as Lightning let the tears finally break freely. It had taken all the willpower in the world to prevent herself from joining Claire in letting everything out but she had to be strong to explain herself.

"Light..I can't even begin to tell you how sorry I am that you had to go through all this. I never wanted to hurt you..the moment we met in Palumpolum there was a connection I felt with you that I never thought possible. I actually was nervous to be around someone for the first time in my life..I tried so damn hard to contain my feelings, to tell myself it was all just some misunderstanding but I couldn't shake it."

Fang lovingly rubbed along the length of the soldiers back at a attempt to ease down her lover. "The more I was around you though the tougher it started to get to hold myself back. Someone that could actually keep up with me in every sense of the word. Someone that matched my skill in combat, my speed, and even showed me up a few times. At that moment I knew I found the person I was meant to be with."

Claire's sobbing slowly started to subside and only cuddled further into Fang as she continued her story. "I was selfish to let go of my restraint and let myself fall in love with you..But now that I'm awake I'm very thankful everything turned out the way it did. I was able to come through with all my promises after all..You was able to see Serah again and now I can give you all the love and support that you always deserved.

Lightning's heart at that moment was inches away from bursting out of her chest. Fanged actually wanted to take care of her, to protect and support her. The feeling was so foreign to her, all her life that was exactly what she did for Serah when they were growing up. The feeling actually made her feel a lot lighter on the inside. For the first time in three years, she finally felt relieved, safe, and secure in her lovers arms. Lightning braved herself to look up at the older pulsian, giving her lover the first opportunity to see her in such weakness.

Fang's emerald eyes followed Claire's moistly sapphire hues and smiled warmly. The huntress brushed her fingers tips across her lovers cheeks to brush away the remaining stray tears as she spoke. "If I can make you one more promise let it be this. I will always be there for you whenever you need me, I'll fight for you, support, and love you no matter what. Nothing will ever cause me to leave you again..I'd rather die before I would ever let you suffer again.

"You better keep that promise to." Claire spoke gently. Letting her forehead rest on Fangs, she let herself close her eyes while she brushed her hands through the brunette's mane. Fang only nodded and hummed in response as the two lay there for what felt like eternity until there was a few consecutive knocks heard from the other end of the room's door.

Lightning quickly cleared her voice and shifted herself off her lover and returned to her place beside the bed before she looked to the door. She would never hear the end of it if Vanille caught the two in such a position. "Come in." The door pulled open to reveal Vanille who's eyes instantly went to the Fang who was now sitting up on the bed. Vanille immediately dashed into the room and past Lightning as the young red head pounced onto her older adoptive sibling and squealed.

"Fang! Your awake! It's about time sleepy head." The huntress was blind sighted when the red headed projectile flew into her chest thought was still able to catch the girl with ease. She was used to Vanille's excited outbursts ever since they was in the orphanage. Fang chuckled lightly and gave Vanille's forehead a gentle poke. "Heya kiddo. Your acting like I've been out for days, how long was I asleep anyway?"

Lightning swiped away at her eyes, making sure there was no traces left that she had been crying just moments earlier. "Just a day. Vanille somehow found out where I lived and she appeared at my doorstep yesterday night. I told her to wait at the house when I went to search for you. I found you about a mile north of the pillar."

Fang's brows furrowed in thought as she tried to recall what happened. The pulsian could have swore that was all still a part of her dreams. While in stasis she had multiple dreams of somehow being released from her prison and walking freely around on the steppes. Though if Lightning was saying was true, she'd been out of stasis for at least two days.

Fang was reminded of that when her stomach started to grumble violently and winced in response. Vanille caught on instantly and hopped the bed before retreating into the kitchen. "Stay right here, Snow has some breakfast cooking I'll let him know to make some extra for you Fang!" the red head spoke before exiting the room.

Lightning then took a step towards Fang, rubbing down the length of her white faded out brand as she softly spoke. "How are you feeling? I'm sure your probably starving but is there anything else?" Fang smiled widely before shaking her head. "Not anything I can think of right now love, thanks for asking though."

Clare smiled before wrapping her arms around the pulsians neck, bringing the older women into one last embrace before they had to meet the others. "I'm glad your back..we all missed you." Fang's head was being pushed into the soldiers stomach as her eyes closed in delight instantly. "It's great to be back..you was on my mind the entire time love..I'll make it up to you for all the lost time." Lightning smiled widely with her cheek resting on top of Fang's head before giving it a small kiss. "Can't wait."

"Well I guess we should probably go out and see what everyone else is doing yeah?" Fang spoke as she reluctantly pulled herself away from her lover. The huntress then was about to get up until she felt Lightning's hands push against her shoulders and felt herself plop back down on the bed. "Not yet." she said with her eyes staring down at the pulsian intensely. "Serah told me you was sleep talking last night and the dream you seemed to be having was very vivid..the night in Sulyya Springs if I remember right?"

Fang looked up at Lightning with a confused expression until it all started to come back to her. The huntress recalled that night to be a very..nice and remarkable one. But now that she started to think about it she had multiple fantasies of her and Lightning having many intimate sessions all over the place but the particular dream she had was all real and one of her favorites, she might add. Though the look she was receiving from her girlfriend was starting to make her a bit uneasy.

"W-Was I talking about that out loud? Light I had no idea that I did that. I'm sorry if that.." Fang was cut off as Lightning turned around and walked towards the door, only to slam it shut and twisted the lock. Lightning then looked back at Fang was looking at her clueless before a evil seductive smirk made its way across the soldiers lips. Lightning sauntered over to where Fang was still sitting before she straddled the pulsians lap. "How about we relive that night..I want you to show me everything you remember." Fang's confused expression quickly melted away before shaping into a cocky grin. "Gladly."

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**Author's Notes: Once again here is a new update! Fang is finally back and Lightning wasted no time reuniting with her girlfriend as you all can see :P. I really appreciate the reviews you guys have been leaving it really means a lot to me and makes me want to write that much more! Thanks for reading and I hope to hear more from you guys soon!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: Reunited**

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Vanille skipped outside of the hallway, past the living room, and into the kitchen where Snow still remained as the huge man was currently separating dish plates across the counter. The young perky red head stopped at the counter before examining the three simple dish plates the man prepared for the former l'cie. One of the dish plates contained eggs, the second stripes of bacon, and the third stacked full of pancakes. Taking a quick whiff of the aura of food around her, she immediately hummed in delight.

"This smells delicious! I never knew you learned to cook this well, I guess I never gave it much thought back when we were on Gran Pulse huh?" Snow only turned to look down at the pulsian across from him before twisting around to retrieve a small plate from the cabinet a short distance behind him. "Well to tell you the truth I never really was that good at all with cooking back then. After Serah moved in with me a few months after you and Fang turned to crystal, she's been teaching me a few things about it."

Snow's lips shaped into a teasing smirk as the big lug returned from the counter and lowered the plate to the counter top. "When I started to get a good hang of it, Serah forced me to cook for her ever since. Can't really say I mind it either, I enjoy being able to take care of her." Vanilled smiled and nodded in response as Serah entered the kitchen from behind her.

"He does a very good job too." Serah spoke as she wrapped her arms around the enormous man's middle. "Vanille are you hungry? There is plenty here for you and Fang both. I'm sure you two must be starving." Snow grinned before folding his arms around the smaller farron in return. "I might actually need to throw some more eggs on the stove for Fang now that I think about it, she had one hell of a appetite back when we was l'cie. Not even a fully cooked gorgonopsid could satisfy that women." the blonde man quipped, receiving a small whack to the back of his head from the pinkette.

Vanille giggled at the display as she skipped over to the cabinet where Snow had just been to retrieve a much larger plate. "It's true. She's always had a bottomless stomach even back when we were kids. I had to help the maiden cook from time to time just to prepare enough for all the other kids plus Fang." Serah and Snow both shared a laugh as they observed the smaller pulsian started to stack some food onto the giant plate.

The couple gawked at the red head as she swooped up almost the entire servings. From what was a medium sized plate full of eggs and bacon, now only laid about two strips of bacon left with one egg. The pancakes was also fully cleaned out. The pair shared a glance before watching the red head skip off outside of the kitchen and disappeared back into the hallway. "Well she wasn't lying about Fang having a bottomless stomach then huh?" Serah spoke dumbfounded.

Vanille stopped outside of the guest room door as she balanced the large plate with one hand and went to turn the knob with the other. The knob refused to twist as the pulsian continued her futile attempts at unlocking the door before finally giving up. The red head let out a aggravated huff before planting a ear to the door to see what in Gran Pulse was going on.

Vanille's mouth shot open and quickly brought up her free hand to silence herself as she listened on. Audible loud grunts, whimpers, moans, and pleas all was heard from both Fang and Lightning. It seemed Fang always had the energy to please, starving or not, especially if that person was the one and only Lightning Farron. Vanille quietly as she could knelt down, leaving the plate a few feet away from the door before retreating quickly back into the living room.

The red head quickly planted her bottom onto the couch before bringing her face down into her hands at a attempt to forget what she just heard. Serah and Snow was in the middle of eating what was left of the breakfast in the kitchen before Serah curiously looked back to her. The younger pinkette dropped her utensils back onto the plate before hopping off her chair and stepped into the living room and stopped in front of the troubled pulsian.

"Vanille what happened? Is something wrong?" When the younger pulsian looked up to meet the pinkette's concerned look, Serah could note that the girls cheeks was flushed completely red. Vanille only shook her head before pouncing up and grabbed Serah's hand, leading the confused girl to the door that exited the house. "I'll tell you later, can we please just eat in town?"

Serah could see something was terribly wrong with the girl but she would have to wait until later to find out what was actually going on. "Okay-okay hold on! I need to get dressed first and then we can go. Lightning wanted me to go shopping with you to find you some new clothes anyway." The worried pinkette then twisted around to look at Snow who just stared at the two in confusion.

"I'm going to take Vanille out shopping for some extra clothes and we're going to eat out. Are you wanting to come along with us?" Snow shook his head before grabbing both his own and Serah's plate and bringing them to the sink. "I can't. I got a call from work this morning and they need me for a eight-hour shift at the bar. I have to be there in almost a hour so I need to get start getting ready." Serah nodded and hurried over to the man to give her boyfriend a tight hug before lifting herself up on her tippy-toes to give the man's scruffy face a kiss.

"Alright babe, please be careful at work today okay?" Snow returned the kiss before dropping the dishes into the sink before folding his gigantic arms around the small-lithe figure and lifted the pinkette up with his ease as she was flung up over his shoulder. Serah gasped in surprise before she broke out in giggles as she pounded her tiny fists into the man's large back. "Will do! Though how about we get changed first ."

Vanille watched the couple exit the kitchen together and into the hallway where they disappeared into their room. The red head folded her arms impatiently before flopping her head against the center of the houses door, trying so desperately to think about anything else then what was currently plaguing her mind. Vanille was only joking around earlier about Lightning having her way with Fang with so soon after she just returned, who knew the soldier was actually going to take it seriously.

Vanille waited as patiently as possible for the next ten minutes before Serah emerged back from the hallway and back into the living room. The pinkette peeled from her flan pajamas and was now dressed in a pink v-neck t-shirt that slightly showed some cleavage along with a pair of lightly colored tight-fitting blue jeans. Vanille also noted the girl to be wearing a tanned purse that looked to be made from a skinned gorgonopsid pelt.

Vanille watched as Serah sauntered over to her, not seemingly to be in any rush as the women was digging through her purse to make sure she had everything she needed before heading out. The young red head took that moment to do a quick scan of the younger farron. Vanille always found Serah incredibly attractive ever since she first laid eyes on her back on Bodhum's beach on Cocoon. If her and Snow somehow happened to not work out, she would definitely..

"Hey Vanille are you ready to go?" Serah spoke, now who was currently standing right in front of the younger pulsian. After realizing she was still gawking like a fool she quickly shook her mind free of the trance she found herself trapped in before responding with a slight blush coloring her cheeks. "Y-yeah sure! Let's go." Vanille stepped out of the pinkette's way as Serah opened and exited through the door with the red head only a few steps behind her as she closed the door behind her.

-x-

Lightning was laying on her side before she rustled awake at the sound of Fang's obnoxiously loud snores filling the room. The soldier groaned, she really needed to get a muzzle if she was hoping for any good night sleep anytime soon. Lightning felt the strong pulsians arms that was currently wrapped around her waist pull her in closer into Fang's middle, the pinkette knew she was going to be stuck there for a while even if she wanted to escape.

Lightning turned in Fang's muscled arms before gently resting her forehead on the pulsians as she closed her eyes, cherishing the last few minutes they would have together alone until the end of the day. The soldier brought her hands up to brush against Fang's cheeks gently before whispering into the sleeping women's ear.

"Fang we need to get up..Serah and Vanille are waiting outside and you should really eat something before you starve to death." Lightning was only given a groan in return before Fang turned her head away from the soldier, refusing to wake up so soon. Not about to give up so easily, she grabbed the huntress by both shoulders and proceeded to shake the sleeping figure gently at first but progressively started to get more aggressive.

"Fang you really need to wake up before those two start asking questions now just get your butt up already!" Fang groaned and finally her eyelids opened to slits to reveal her lover hovering above herself with a very demanding tone in the soldiers voice. Fang always loved Lightning's voice, especially whenever the women got angry. The huntress found it to be unbelievably sexy.

"Yes ma'am. I always thought you was kinky in a way but already this early in the morning?" Fang quipped. Lightning's cheeks started to flush a deep crimson before she fixated a glare towards the older women. "Shut up Fang." Lightning broke away the eye contact for a short moment to check the clock over at the nightstand beside the bed. It was already three in the afternoon and she arrived around ten thirty in the morning. Were they really at it that long? Lightning returned her glare back to Fang before hopping off the bed and started to search for her clothes that was currently scattered around the floor.

"Besides it's not morning anymore it's three in the afternoon. Surely they already know something is up by now unfortunately." Fang situated herself to sit back against the bed railing as she watched Lightning's naked back side bent down multiple times as she picked up each piece of clothing. For a moment there she almost forgot the ability to speak. "Oh them? Don't worry about it, the old gang never found out about us back in Sulyya Springs did they? Besides why does it really matter now?"

Lightning thought that to be a pretty good question, why did she care so much about if everyone discovered their love for each other? Was it really so bad to have people that was close to her want to be involved and support them? It would definitely be a subject she would have to think about later. The pinkette looked back to Fang as she started to redress.

"Yeah well Serah was still trapped in stasis otherwise knowing her she probably would have found out one way or another and to be completely honest with you I'm not even exactly sure why it bothers me so much." Lightning slipped back into her pair of blue jeans before sauntering over to the bed to run her hand through Fang's brown wild locks.

"It's not because of you either it's just I spent all my life working on pushing people away and blocking out my emotions that I never expected I'd be able to meet somebody that would ever break me down the way you did. I'm just not used to this is all and everything is happening so fast I just don't-" Fang smiled before silencing Light with a swift breath taking kiss before speaking.

"Love it's all right don't worry about it. I mean sure Vanille is probably going to make a fuss about it for a while but that's just who she is. Everybody knows you have every right in the world to be happy especially after everything you have been through. You have nothing to worry about Light I'm certain everyone will be pleased to know that you found somebody you can find yourself to fall in love with and I for one believe I'm the luckiest person on both Gran Pulse and Cocoon that you choose to be with."

Lightning smiled faintly before slowly pushing her lips forward to meet the pulsians as she closed her eyes. Fang did the same as the pair shared a deep passionate kiss for almost a full minute before Lightning hesitantly pulled away. "Thank you Fang...I really needed to hear that." The huntress gave her girlfriend a reassuring nod and smiled.

The soldier fixed her stance and straightened her back before extended out a hand towards Fang. "Come on let's go into the kitchen, I'm sure the others are outside waiting for you and I'm sure your probably starving at this point." Fang grimaced and rubbed her stomach at the reminder, now that she thought about it she was actually starting to feel pretty starved. The huntress grabbed the hand offered to her and was tugged off the bed and landed with a stumble on the wooden floor.

Lightning noticed the tumble immediately and held tightly onto Fang's as well as pressing a hand to the pulsian's shoulder to help steady her. "Hey are you okay? Are you sure your able to walk like this?" Fang chuckled and nodded as she took a moment to find her balance while taking a few baby steps in front of her to confirm she was capable of making the rest of the way into the kitchen. "Yeah I think I'll be okay for the most part. You really drained me out of what little energy I had left earlier with that little stunt you pulled back there." Fang quipped, giving the soldier a teasing wink as she went to unlock and exit through the bedroom door.

Right when the door opened Fang luckily noticed a pan of food a few feet away from the door before accidently stepping on it. The huntress gave a questioning look behind her at Lightning who only shrugged in return before she did the same and bent down to retrieve the overly-stacked plate of food. Giving the food a few experimental pokes at the food with the fork already supplied for her, she tested how good it would still be after sitting for who knows how long.

Fang gave the plate a quick sniff, taking in the overwhelming smell of pepper filling her senses causing her to wince in effect. "Vanille must have been the one who got this plate for me, that girl knows how much I like pepper on well..pretty much everything." Lightning nodded and took a mental note of that before she walked past her girlfriend and into the kitchen herself.

Fang was quick to follow while forking some eggs and wasting no time digging into the food before even getting to the table. Lightning scurried around the kitchen to gather the dirty utensils and plates that was seemingly now scattered all over the place. Serah trained Snow to do many things and the man was slowly starting to become more like a decent human being in time but the tree-like idiot of a man still had a long way to go, like learn to clean up after himself for instance.

Lightning dumped the large dirty piles of dishes into the sick and pulled up on the facet knob to start the hot water. The pinkette peeked out from the corner of her eye over to the kitchen table where Fang was still stuffing the food into her mouth rapidly, Lightning feared Fang might choke if she kept it up much at that pace much longer. After returning her attention back to the sink she reached over to grab the bottle of dish washing soap that was conveniently placed beside the sink and squirted some into the small tub of water and was quick to start building up the suds.

Before she was about to get started, Lightning talked over her shoulder to Fang as she made her way over the fridge. "What do you want to drink Fang? We got milk, water, and some orange juice but if you want anything else I can run to the store and get it for you if you would like?" Fang paused and downed the last piece of the pancake that she was currently chewing on before answering with a smile. "Just some water is fine, thanks for asking though. You're so cute when you try and spoil me y'know?"

Claire did not dignify that with a response and only turned away as heat started to rise up to the women's cheeks. Lightning was so confused on how to go about treating her lover, the last thing she wanted to do was be too clingy and affectionate in fear she might smother the women or try and keep her distance but Fang would eventually lose interest with her and move on. Fearing the latter might be worse, Lightning decided to go with the first option and hope for the best.

Claire grabbed a water bottle that was located at the bottom of the fridge before pushing the door closed with little effort with her knee as she sauntered back over at Fang. The pulsian finished up the last remainder of food before Lightning sat the bottle down beside the empty plate and pulled up a seat beside the huntress. The soldier rested her head down onto her lovers tanned and muscled shoulder as she nuzzled into her lovers side.

Fang smiled warmly at the contact as she twisted the bottle top open and brought the tip of the cylinder to her soft lips, gulping down the cold aqua as it passed down her throat. The huntress took down almost half the bottle with one chug before returning the bottle back to the table top and looked over to the soldier. Fang closed her eyes and sighed in delight as she pressed her face through her girlfriends pink locks to search for the women's ear and found it almost instantly. The huntress teasingly nibbled on the tip before whispering. "I love you sunshine."

Lightning shivered at the charming accented tone being sung into her ear as her already reddened cheeks deepened in color. Fang stood up slowly from her chair as she gave Lightning time to lift her head back from the pulsian's shoulder and looked up to her in confusion. Fang snickered as she tugged Lightning from her chair and slung her up into the pulsians arms where she wrapped tanned arms around the pinkettes neck, bringing her into a deep and sudden kiss.

Fang teasingly pulled away as Lightning pushed her head forward to continue the passionate moment. "And I'm about to prove it to you right now." Fang reached down behind the soldier to grab a hand-full of the women's rear before hoisting Lightning up on counter beside the sink who released a sharp gasp in return. The huntress wrapped Lightning's long tender legs around the pulsian's waist and wasted no time in capturing the pinkette's lips once again.

-x-

"You heard them doing what?!" Serah exclaimed from the food court inside the local New Bodhum Mall. Vanille quickly pushed a hand to the girl's lips to silence her as a few surrounding people started to look at them curiously. "Shh!" Vanille waited until everyone around them started to go on about their own business before she retracted back her hand and sighed. "Yeah I think so. Either Lightning was giving Fang a really good massage or they was...you know."

Serah cringed and made a disgusted sound. "I liked that bed to! Ugh, I think I might have to burn it now." The smaller farron spoke disappointingly. Vanille looked at her apologetically before she continued. "I'm sorry! I didn't figure this would happen already so soon. I figured since Fang finally just woke up that Lightning would at least wait a week or two before they started doing...that. I only left them alone for like two minutes too!"

Serah shook her head of the thought, just wanting to be rid of the image of Lightning taking full advantage of a weakened Fang in her guest bed room of all places. Serah grimaced and attempted to purge the thoughts from her mind until Vanille continued on. "Well I guess I should have seen this coming after all..me and Fang shared dreams and thoughts during our crystal stasis and let's just say that she...um..had a very 'vivid' imagination. Like this one dream she had where both of them was riding on bahamut one night and Fang just all of a sudden jumped back on Lightning and started tearing apart all of her clothes-"

"Enough!" Serah interrupted as she covered her brought her hands up to cover her innocent ears. "I don't want talk about my sister's sex life anymore Vanille!" Vanille nodded in agreement. "Right..I'm sorry." she apologized. "Serah slowly started to calm down before releasing a sigh and getting up from her chair suddenly losing her appetite to finish off her waffles.

"Let's go find you some clothes. Hopefully we will forget about this soon enough. Though I am glad to my sister finally starting to be happy again. Even back before I was a l'cie Lightning never looked to be happy, not truly happy anyway. Fang really did the impossible when she changed my sister the way she did and in a way I'm grateful. Finally she can stop fussing about my safety and well-being all the time now that she met someone and I really do hope Fang treats her well. She deserves it."

Vanille grinned happily at the change of the subject and nodded. "She will Serah don't worry, I've known Fang all my life and she's nothing but loyal. She'll treat Lightning like a princess." Serah giggled at the image of her sister being something that feminine, Lightning was and probably always will be a tom boy but it was interesting to see her sister being taken care of for once.

Serah gripped onto her friends wrist and pulled the younger pulsian along with her to the shopping strip of the mall. Vanille almost tripped over herself while trying to keep up with the younger farron as they hurried up the stairs and out of the food court. Despite what happened this morning, the two girls felt like today was going to be great after all.

xxx

**Author's Notes: Hey guys here is once again another update! First off I would like to apologize for how long this took to get out there as I was having some computer problems all weekend and had a few things come up during the week but it's all taken care of now! With that said I should be back to my normal posting schedule of getting two chapters in and If I'm lucky maybe three a week. As usual I appreciate the feedback and let me know what you guys think of the latest update! Hope you enjoy it.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5: Readjustment**

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Fang had Lightning's top halfway off as the two hesitantly broke off from the heated exchange of brief and fierce kisses when they heard loud footsteps coming from outside. Lightning quickly placed her hand on the pulsian's forehead and pushed the older women away before swiftly pulling her top back down and hopped off the sink. "Damn it they are back already?!" Lightning spoke with a bright flush coloring her cheeks rapidly. "This way!" Fang whispered as she swiftly grabbed the pinkette's wrist and tugged the frustrated women behind the kitchen counter to hide when the door opened.

Serah and Vanille entered through the front door with the younger pulsian carrying four bags of new clothing, two dangling on each wrist. Serah continued their conversation from outside as they walked into the living room. "-I know Snow only wants to help by bringing in some extra gil to help support us but I hate that new job he got over at the bar. Every time he leaves I'm scared something will happen to him and every time I try and convince him.."

Serah stopped midsentence as her eyes scanned through her kitchen. Plastic cups and letters that was placed beside the sink was scattered all over the floor and across the kitchen. Vanille paused for a moment in confusion before she followed her gaze and saw the chaos. It looked as if a small hurricane flowed through the pinkette's kitchen and tossed around everything that was not already attached to something. Vanille dared a glance over to Serah's face who drew a scowl just as intimidating as Lightning's if not worse. The smaller pulsian could sense Serah was about to explode any moment as she pressed her hands on Serah's back and pushed the girl towards her room. "Come on let's go try these on and tell me what you think!" Vanille squeaked as the two disappeared into the hallway.

Fang peeked up from the kitchen counter to make sure the two was gone before letting out a relieved as she stood up still half naked. "Phew! That was a close one." Fang spoke with a cheery smile before she scanned the room and saw their handy work scattered about. "We sure did make a mess huh?" Fang grimaced. Lightning stood up beside the tanned women as she furiously fixed her hair and looked to Fang with a rather menacing scowl.

"Just shut up and let's get this cleaned up before they get back." Lightning spoke as she bent down to pick up the plastic and paper debris as she went around the room. Fang watched the women for a bit before sighing and dropping down to mimic the soldier. "Hey what happened to the affectionate and cuddly Light that I woke up to this morning?" Fang teased. Lightning did not respond as she fully occupied her attention with restacking the debris back to where it belonged as Fang started to do the same.

xxx

Vanille twisted the knob and opened the door to Serah and Snow's bedroom before the two girls waltzed in as the younger pulsian released her captives wrist. Showing no sign of self-consciousness or care of privacy, Vanille quickly stripped off her old garments, letting the rags fall to the floor as she started to dig through the bags for a matching pair of clothes. "V-Vanille?! We do have a bathroom down the hall if you needed to change." Serah turned her head to shield her innocent eyes with a crimson blush painting her cheeks as Vanille ruffled around the bags.

Serah was unsure why it bothered her so much to see another girl nude, Lightning and her both used to have no problem with it back when they were growing up but they was sisters so it felt normal. Though here she was now with a girl that she couldn't exactly label as a close friend now fully naked standing in front of her. Serah found her will slowly bending as she started to feel herself wanting to look over at the girl and it took everything she had to stop herself.

Vanille reached into a large shopping bag and tugged out a short-sleeved t-shirt that had a animated gremlin graphic drawn across the front that the younger pulsian thought was the cutest thing she had ever seen. Laying the shirt down on the bed, the young perky red-head dug back into the same bag to pull out a pair of blue jean short-shorts which barely covered much of anything. Vanille grabbed both items and presented them in front of Serah as she cocked her head to the side.

"Well? What do 'ya think?" Vanille spoke out in her normal carefree tone. Serah slowly peeked over to Vanille and mentally sighed in relief as Vanille had the clothes over her exposed body. The pinkette gave the clothes a quick scan before looking back up to Vanille and giving the women a curt nod. "I like it! I think it looks great on you." The young red-head giggled before dropping the clothes back on the bed before giving Serah a quick hug. "Thanks! I'm going to go take shower and throw these on then. I'll be back!"

Serah froze and immediately started blushing once more as she felt the small yet toned nude frame of Vanille press into her stomach as she gently returned the hug, now feeling a slight inner desire to just let her hands start to roam the women's form until Vanille pulled out of her arms and escaped through the room with the clothes in hand. Serah dropped her face into her palms before letting out a pitiful sigh. "What's going on with me..?" Suddenly feeling overwhelmed, Serah hopped off the bed and exited through her room and headed towards the kitchen.

xxx

"Alright! I think that's all of 'em!" Fang spoke victoriously as she stacked the last plastic cup on the counter. The pulsian then looked over at Lightning who started to resume on washing the dishes and sauntered back over to the pinkette with a sly grin plastered over her face. Fang gently wrapped her arms around Lightning's back and around her middle before resting her chin on the women's shoulder before speaking.

"That sure was a close call earlier huh? I wander what they would say if they came in while I was just about to-" Lightning not ready t o give up the contact exactly just yet she looked over her shoulder at Fang to give the women a glare instead. "Shut up! It's bad enough they probably already know what we did this morning in my sisters guest room let alone their kitchen. Will you let me finish the dishes please?"

Fang smiled before giving the women's neck a gentle kiss, watching as Lightning shivered slightly at the contact before releasing her lover. "Alright-alright, I guess I can go see what those two are up to then." The pulsian smiled as she gave the soldiers back a swift rub before she sauntered out of the kitchen and through the living room to the hallway where she ran into a naked Vanille about to enter the bathroom.

Fang quirked her brow at the sight and let her eyes fall to the girls bag. "What's in there? Also why aren't you wearing any clothes?" Vanille looked up to her older adoptive sister as she pulled out the bundled up clothes for Fang to see. "Some new clothes Serah bought me today! Aren't they adorable?"

Fang snatched the clothes from Vanille's smaller hands and started to paw at the orange t-shirt before unfolding it. The pulsian did indeed find the animated gremlin to be pretty cute but her features switched around to a glare as she scanned over the shorts. Fang eyed the shorts for a bit before looking back down to Vanille with a very un-amused expression. "You know I'm never going to let you go into public wearing -these- don't you?"

Vanille glared back in return before snatching the clothes. "Fang! I'm not a kid anymore! I'm pretty sure I'm old enough to wear whatever I feel like." The young red-head sighed before turning around to open the bathroom door, looking over her shoulder to Fang before she went inside the room. "I can take care of myself alright? Besides, you got your girlfriend to worry about. Try not to ravage her anymore today please?"

Fang's scowl deepened and was about to make some sort of witty comeback until Vanille giggled as she slammed the bathroom door shut behind her. The huntress let out a aggravated huff as she turned to her side only to meet Serah coming up from the hall. Fang nodded to the smaller farron and put on a smile, regardless of what happened moments ago. Serah returned the gesture as she stopped in front of the much taller women.

"Oh hey Fang! If you're looking for Vanille she went to go take a shower." Fang gestured towards the bathroom door with a tilt of her head in response. "Yeah I know I just got done speaking with her actually. I was hoping to actually get to talk to you for a bit if that would be alright?" Serah nodded. "Oh sure that's okay..would you like to speak in the living room?" Fang smiled and followed beside the pinkette as the pair exited the hallway and into the living room where the two took a seat on the couch.

Lightning looked up from the dishes as the two came into view and watched them curiously for a few moments before turning her attention back to the dishes as the pair started talking. Lightning attempted to eavesdrop slightly but Fang kept her voice low, which was rare, causing Lightning to only make out mumbles between the two. The soldier's interest was only starting to get worse as the two shared a few laughs but she figured whatever they was talking about, Fang or Serah would probably end up filling her in later.

Fang looked across the couch toward the pinkette and smiled warmly as she softly spoke. "I don't think we have had a chance to be properly introduced yet. Lightning has told me so much about you and I'm pretty honored to finally meet you in person but it's hardly fair that I know this much about you and you not even knowing my name so I guess I'll start with that. I'm Oerba Yun Fang, happy to finally meet 'ya."

Serah shined a smile and nodded. "Nice to meet you Oerba Yun Fang. My sister told me quite a few stories about you and the others back when we were all l'cie. She mentioned the others as well but the topic of you came up a lot more often. She spoke very fondly of you, mentioning that she finally found someone to keep up with her and match her in combat like nobody else could. She spoke very fondly of you and that's a first, my sister never used to compliment anyone rather than me. You really worked wonders with Claire."

Fang could only smile helplessly at the girl, she was cute as she was sweet. "Yeah I guess I did huh? " Fang spoke as she started to look down at her lap when her smile started to twist into a feint frown. "Though I had my doubts at first about whether it was right or not to try and pursue her back then. The future was so uncertain for all of us and the last thing I wanted to do was fall in love with someone that I might end up losing just a few days or months later. I thought Lightning deserved better than that, she deserved to be happy with someone that would not all of a sudden disappear one day and never to return, most of all she deserved to have you back in her life."

Serah's heart started to sink at Fang's story, it was so beautiful and almost poetic in a way. The smaller farron reached over and placed a comforting hand on top of the pulsian's as Serah spoke. "What changed your mind? To pursue Lightning, I mean." Fang looked over to watch the hand that rested on hers before returning her gaze back over to Serah. "Well the more me and Lightning started to spend more time together fighting with each other, laughing, sharing moments alone it started to become nearly impossible to get her 'outta my head. I tried so hard to keep my feelings at bay until we got separated that one night in Sulyya Springs. I dared myself to just give in just once to see what it would be like to kiss Lightning and whenever I finally gathered the courage for it..I knew there was nobody else in all of Cocoon or Gran Pulse in the world like her. I fell madly in love with your sister and I wanted nothing more than to see her happy."

Serah laced her fingers gently through Fang's as she followed the huntress's emerald orbs. "Well I think you succeeded in that Fang. Ever since Lightning brought you back here last night, she has been in the happiest mood I've ever seen her in after our parents passed away. All I ask is that please just continue to take good care of her. My sister deserves nothing but the best and I hope you can live up to that responsibility." Fang gave the girl a nod in return as she gripped Serah's hand slightly tighter in reassurance. "I will Serah, you won't have to worry about that. I'll never hurt Lightning the way I did again. I promise to never leave her side anymore like what happened after Orphan." Serah shined a warm smile before releasing Fang's hand and giggled. "I'm glad to hear it. I really appreciate what you did for both me and my sister Fang, it means the world."

Fang smiled weakly at the young pinkette as she slowly started to slide her hands free and peered above the younger farron to the older who was watching her closely for some reason. After realizing she was caught, Lightning quickly dashed her gaze away and back to the dishes as she started to stack the last few remaining plates into the dish rack beside the sink. Fang curiously watched the women for a bit then moved her eyes back to Serah as she started to lift herself off the couch before giving the top of the smaller farron's head a gentle rub. "It's no problem. Your sister seems to be off about something so I'm going to check with her for a minute alright?"

Serah giggled and gestured for Fang to go ahead. "Sure thing, Vanille should be getting out of the shower soon anyway." Fang nodded as she sauntered her way back into the kitchen and looked over her shoulder back to Serah before entering. "Oh yeah and don't let Vanille wear those shorts out in public, she'll never get people to stop chasing her around afterward." Serah laughed softly before getting up as well and exiting back into the hallway. "I'll try my best!" With that, Serah quickly disappeared out of sight and heard the girl's door shut shortly after.

Fang approached Lightning from the side as her arms came to rest on the counter top beside the pinkette and watched her for a moment before Lightning finally started to speak. "You two was talking for quite a while, what about?" Lightning spoke as she flicked the water down the sink before turning around to rip off a piece of a paper towel to dry her hands. "Oh just about how everything ended up the way it did, what happened after Orphans, and then you of course." Lightning turned her head to meet Fang's teasing look before giving the women a scoff in return. "Can't say I'm really surprised."

Fang was about to make another witty comment before she heard the door from Serah's room re-open and heard the women talking to someone. Fang could not make out Vanille's loud and distinct voice on the other end so it was obvious the girl was still in the shower and the pulsian found her curiosity building as the smaller farron returned into the living room before the girl flipped closed her small phone.

"Hope called and said that he was stopping by here in a few minutes. I didn't tell him about Fang and Vanille coming back, I wasn't sure if you was ready to tell him yet." Fang quirked a brow at the statement before turning her head to look at Lightning. "When did you tell her that? I don't see a problem with it." Lightning released a sigh as she looked between both Serah and Fang for a moment before relenting. "It's because if people start to find out then the press will never leave you two alone. Though I guess we can trust Hope not to let everyone know."

At the mentioning of his name, Vanille almost bursted down the door with only a towel wrapped around herself as she rushed into the living room. "Hope's coming? Oh yay! I should probably get dressed then before he gets here. I'm curious to see what he's been up to since I've been gone!" With that, Vanille skipped outside of the room and returned back into bathroom where she started to change. Everyone found themselves staring at the door in confusion with the girls sudden excitement to see the silver haired boy.

xxx

Snow leaned against the bar table surrounded by the NORA crew with Lebreau serving drinks over the counter. The blonde haired man reached down to lift up a small glass of scotch and took a few swigs. "I appreciate you guys coming out here to meet you on pretty short notice but I have some pretty big news." Yuj, Maqui, and Gadot all leaned in closer to the man as Lebreau leaned over the counter. "Well what is it boss? It's about your little woman huh?" Lebreau teased and Snow gave the women a nod. "Sure is! I hired a wedding planner last week and we decided to have it here in New Bodhum. I remembered Serah saying how she always wanted a beach wedding so It seemed obvious to have it here. Don't tell anyone though, It's still a secret. I plan on giving her the news next week on our anniversary."

The whole NORA gang gave one big celebratory shout as Gadot picked up his glass and offered a toast. "To the boss and his little lady!" The crew laughed and clanked their glasses together and downed their shot glasses with one go. Maqui had to settle for orange juice but decided to go along with the toast anyway. "A wedding?! Why am I always the last to hear about these things?" Snow turned around at the familiar voice to see Sazh approaching the bar.

Snow bumped himself off the counter and gestured for the man to join in. "Hey old man you made it! I was wandering when you was going to show up." Sazh gave a sigh and looked behind him over to Dajh who was currently clinging to the back of his coat and gave the boy's hair a quick ruffle. "I took Dajh out to get a bite to eat before we headed over this way. Now what's with all this wedding talk?"

Snow chuckled before setting his shot glass back down and gestured for the old man to walk with him. "My shift's over so I should probbaly be heading out anyway. Thanks for showing up guys." Snow waved off to the NORA crew as the big lug and Sazh walked along the beach. "I haven't had a chance to tell Serah yet but I plan on doing it next week. Have you had a chance to talk to Vanille or Fang yet since they got back?"

Snow didn't realize his mistake only until after he blurted out that the pulsians were back. Lightning had told him to keep his mouth shut for now and now surely she was going to have his head for it. Maybe he would never live to get married after all. "What?! They're back? When?!" Snow sighed and rubbed the back of his head as the two came to a stop. "Last night, I forgot I promised Light I'd not let anyone know until they was ready. Now she'll probably have my head for this."

Sazh chuckled as he gave the man's back a gentle pat. "Yeah probably. Soldier girl isn't the type to forgive easily. Though it's great news to see that they finally made it out of there, I figured it was only a matter of time with how stubborn those two are." Snow chuckled as the two resumed their walk down the beach. "Yeah that's what I thought. I'm sure Light will be ready to let everyone know soon, until then don't tell anyone I told you, it would be nice to have all my limbs in-tact whenever I finally do get married."

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**Author's Notes: Hey guys here is once again another update! This chapter was very difficult for some reason for me to write so you might notice a few issues with some of the scenes and dialogue but for the most part I think it flowed alright. Now I tried to get in the rest of the gang into this chapter with Sazh and Hope both, however I was only able to get Sazh in without dragging this chapter out too long but Hope will definitely be making a appearance in the next chapter. **

**Also some of you may be noticing I have been experimenting with some Verah in this chapter as well. I really do enjoy the pairing though I'm finding it difficult to see any reason why Serah would have any desire to leave Snow and/or cheat on him after all the two has been through. However that does not mean that it will never happen and I may experiment with more Verah as chapters come and go. Please let me know what you guys think and I appreciate the kind reviews you guys leave and I hope to hear more from you soon! Thanks for reading :D!**


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Normal Life

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Fang lay on her back on the couch with her head nestled into Lightning's lap as the two found themselves watching television as Vanille and Serah was in her room talking no doubt. "Nothing good to watch is ever on these things, I'm not sure is with you cocoonians and your soap operas along with your incredible fake action movies." Fang spoke as she released a sigh. Lightning only looked down at her lover with a chuckle before running her hands through Fang's hair. "Serah likes to watch shows like these so I'd always record them for her when she still lived with me. I hardly ever had a chance to watch television, I constantly busied myself over at the Guardian Corps to ever get a chance to relax like this."

Fang purred as the soft pinkette's hands massaged and scratched at her scalp before pulling her eyes from the television and directed them upwards to her lover. "Well It's good for you to take some time to relax, you was killin' yourself working there as much as you did. Serah told me what happened the past few years and how you pretty much secluded yourself from everybody. Light you really need to get out and be with your friends and family more often, now that I'm back that shouldn't be a problem right?" Fang spoke with a grin.

Lightning let out a disgusted sigh at the thought. She loved Serah to death but after the younger sibling started to slowly return back to normal, the more she started to become the little annoyingly lovable sister that she grew up with. Serah always would find her on what rare few days she had off and always wanted to take the older women shopping or trying to bring her out to see some movie. Before, Lightning wanted to be alone after what happened to Fang but now that her lover was finally back, was there any reason to still avoid such things?

Lightning leaned her head down to plant a soft kiss upon Fang's forehead before she gently spoke. "I guess you're right. If we decided to go out we'll have to try and keep it to ourselves though. The general public still doesn't know about you and Vanille, I'd like to avoid you two getting swarmed by random mobs of people." Fang chuckled. "Light we'll be okay. Try not to worry about it so much we can take care of ourselves yeah?"

The two looked up to the door as two distinctly knocks was heard. As if on cue, the young redhead bolted out of Serah's room and into the living room towards the door. Vanille grabbed the handle and launched the door open, hoping to see the silver-haired boy on the other side but was greeted by two much taller men. Vanille's eyes lit up as she saw Sazh standing beside the tall blonde and immediately wrapped her tiny limbs around the man's middle and squealed.

"Sazh! It's so good to see you again!" The older man chuckled as he returned the hug and gave the girl's head a gentle pat. "Hey there red! It's sure been a while since I last saw you, It's great to see your doing okay." Vanille pulled away from the taller man as she looked past him and saw the old man's son, Dajh, standing behind him. "He's grown so much hasn't he?!" Sazh followed the girls gaze and laughed as he gave his son's hair a quick ruffle. "Yup, like a weed. It won't be too much longer before he starts to outgrow his old man."

Vanille beamed a smile up at the older man as her head tilted to the side in question. "Are you two planning on staying for a while?" The young red head chirped. Sazh chuckled and gave the younger pulsian's head a quick rub. "I wish I could but I have to get back to the ranch here soon, chocobo's to feed and what not." Sazh spoke before he looked past Vanille for a moment as he started notice Fang was still not present.

"Where is Fang and soldier girl? I'd figure they would be around here somewhere." Vanille giggled before moving herself out of the way of the door opening and pointed over at the couch at the cuddling couple. "Over here!" Sazh looked over at the pointed direction and immediately wished he hadn't. Fang had her arms wrapped upward around Lightning's neck as she was giving the older pinkette a affectionate kiss to the cheek. Lightning caught Sazh's gaze and instantly turned her face away with a glare, her cheeks starting to flush a deep red as the whole room seemed to stare at the couple.

Sazh stumbled over his words as he carefully tried to make sense of the situation. "So this whole time you two have been..you mean while we was..I mean I always had my suspicions but was you ever going to tell any of us?!" Fang chuckled as she released her blushing victim before hoping off the women's lap and onto her feet. "Sunshine here thought it best we should have kept it a secret at the time with the whole world ending and all. Though now that all that mess is over with, I'm sure she'll have no problem screaming to the world about our love isn't that right?" Fang teased as she gave Lightning a quick peck on the cheek.

Lightning turned to glare at Fang before giving a huff of annoyance. "Shut up." She spoke flatly. Fang gave Lightning a pouting face before she tilted Lightning's chin over to face her as she started to slowly straddle the women's waist teasingly. "I love it when you get all worked up like this love, it's so-" Sazh interrupted with a cough. "Excuse me you rabbits there are children present! " The older man shielded his son's eyes before turning around to make his way out of the door. "We have to get back anyway, let me know whenever you guys are wanting to get together, preferably whenever those two are decent!"

Lightning gazed to Fang with the fiercest death glare she ever figured imaginable as the pinkette shoved the brunette from her lap and onto the couch beside her. "Get off me. Stop doing that whenever we're around other people." Fang gave a defeated huff and figured to just let it go for now as she slumped back into the couch, eyeing Snow as the tall man cautiously entered the home. "So what all did I miss?" The big lug spoke dumbfounded.

Vanille smiled as she turned herself away from the door and gazed towards the huge man. "Oh nothing too big me and Serah went shopping while -those- two seemed to be using the house for their own-" The young perky red-head was interrupted by Lightning's fixated glare, causing the girl to forcefully swallow down the giant lump in her throat. "Never mind. Anyways how was your day at work?" Snow itched at the back of his head chuckling nervously. "The same as every night I guess, today was not as busy thankfully. Have any of you guys seen Serah around?"

As if on cue, the pinkette stumbled out from the hallway and stepped into the living room giving her future husband a gentle smile as she wrapped her arms around the man's middle. "Hey there, I missed you. You didn't have any trouble today did you?" Snow smiled in return and planted a kiss on his girlfriend's forehead. "I'm alright everything went pretty good today thankfully." The tall man could practically feel the two women's eyes piercing through him from their position on the couch as he tilted his head further down to whisper to the smaller farron. "Could I talk to you later whenever Fang and Lightning head back?"

Serah nodded in return before peeking back over to the two love birds. Fang continued her teasing on the older farron by making kissy-faces towards the annoyed soldier as her muscular tanned arms wrapped themselves around the woman's waist, refusing to release her as much as the pinkette struggled to escape. The smaller pinkette giggled at the sight of her older sister's helpless captivity before turning back to her boyfriend. "Sure thing. Though I think they probably won't be leaving anytime soon I think."

Vanille smiled as she moved herself between the two and looked to them both with a scandalous plan already forming itself inside the young red-head's mind. "I think I might be able to help with that! Besides once Hope finally gets here Fang won't let me anywhere near him once she finally realizes I fell for him. So here is what we will do..."

Fang finally yielded her teasing assault on Lightning and turned her view over to the small gang hovering by the door as they was all mysteriously whispering. The older pulsian furrowed her brow as she attempted to listen in on what the former l'cie were up to before she felt her lithe counterpart slip through her arms during the distraction. The huntress made a face to return the darkening glare she was receiving from the older farron before she spoke.

"Hey! You cheated on that one, I was distracted for only like two seconds!" Lightning's shoulders tensed as she looked away from Fang and towards the group as her inner frustrations started to build up. She was always victimized by Fang's teases, even back when they was still l'cie, but all this was still happening too fast for her. Lightning wasn't exactly ready to open up fully to her lover, not with everyone in the room at least, in private it was a whole different story though she still lacked the courage to return such affections in public.

Fang sighed before scooting closer on the couch to Lightning, carefully placing a hand beside the women's leg. "Light come on you told me earlier 'ya would at least try opening up to your friends but I won't prod. I'm sorry if I seem like I'm trying to rush this." Lightning folded her arms together and dared a glance over at Fang and immediately regretted it. Fang used her kicked-puppy face and Lightning's will started to slowly melt away. Damn it why did she have to be so cute? Lightning rolled her eyes and hopped off the couch with a scoff before turning around to Fang.

"We should probably get back home. I have enough room for both you and Vanille if you two decide you would like to live with me..I mean if you would want to." Lightning looked away from her lover as a faint blush started to color her cheeks as Fang chuckled, getting up as well. The older pulsian brought her hands to gently ghost down the older farron's shoulders and down the length of the women's arms before whispering. "Of course love, I'd be happy to. Let me just get Vanille and we'll get going. I'll let Serah know to tell Hope to stop by whenever he's done here alright?"

Lightning huffed as she switched over her gaze back to Fang before slowly giving the women a reassuring nod when the older pinkette let herself lean into the pulsian's strong frame. Fang smiled as her arms folded around the soldiers middle and the two just sat there for a few moments, taking in each other's warmth before reluctantly pulling away.

The pair walked up to the scheming group as Fang butted-in with a cough. "Me and Sunshine are going to head back home, it's been a pretty long day so far yeah?" The group agreed with a nod as Fang peered behind her over to the soldier as she grabbed the women's hand, leading her to the door. Fang gripped the knob and tugged the door open, stopping a few steps short of exiting before turning her head back. "Vanille! 'Ya comin' or what?"

The young red-head jumped slightly at the mentioning of her name before slowly turning around, quickly trying to think of some excuse to stay. "O-Oh no I'll catch up with you two later! I'd like to stay and catch up with Serah and Snow for a bit longer." Fang eyed the younger pulsian for a moment, studying the girls timid movements and the shaky tone in her voice was all too familiar, she was plotting something. Fang shrugged it off, just wanting to hurry up and be alone with Lightning for the rest of the evening until Hope was going to arrive and started to head out the door.

"Whenever Hope gets here tell him he can find us at sunshine's place, he should know where it's at. Alright well if you're not back by midnight I'll be comin' to find you. Let me know if you need anything." With that, the pair walked off outside the home and started along the path to the beach. Serah ran beside Vanille towards the door and waved toward the fleeing lovers. Vanille let out a relieved sigh as the two girls walked back inside the home as the door quickly shut behind them. "See? I told you I had a plan and it worked out perfectly!"

Serah eyed the younger pulsian in confusion before speaking. "What plan? We didn't even have a chance to do anything. I figured they would have at least stayed until Hope got here." Snow and Vanille both shrugged in agreement as a sudden knock was heard at the door. Vanille huffed and walked up to door already expecting who it was. "Darn it! I figured she knew I was fibbing, she's always been able to tell!" She pouted.

Vanille gripped at the door knob aggressively before swinging the door open, already expecting to see Fang and Lightning on the other side. "Alright I'm sorry-" Vanille cut herself off at the sight of the silver-haired visitor. The young red-head wanted to panic as she simply gawked at the older and now taller Hope, much different from when she saw him three years ago. The boy hit a growth spurt the past three years and now Vanille actually had to look up to meet his eyes. Hope definitely grew up to be a very handsome attractive young man. Hope started to scratch his head nervously as Vanille just awkwardly started to stare and found it necessary to break the silence. "Umm..Sorry for what?"

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**Author's Notes: I'm sorry! This chapter is much smaller than the rest and it took twice the time and for that I deeply apologize. As most of you know Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn was released a few weeks ago and I started to get sucked in to that pretty quickly. Anyways this chapter also served as a reminder that I did -not- give up on this fic and leave you guys hanging, I was just sucked up in other things at the time.**

**I hope you guys can forgive me for the wait and the shortness of the chapter, I assure you the next chapters to come will return to full-length after this update. Also for anybody else that picked up FFXIV I'd love to get on and play with you guys! I'm on the world Coeurl and my username is Lucianna Raveborn so if you guys would like to hop on, send me a tell or a friend request and we can definitely do something :)! **

**Again I'd love to thank you guys for your continued support and kind reviews you have left for my chapters, it means the world to me it really does, love you guys and I hope to hear more from you soon! Please let me know how you felt about the direction of the story thus far!**


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: New Beginnings

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Fang and Lightning walked up to the entrance of the soldier's New Bodhum estate and Lightning tucked a hand down her right pocket to find the keys as Fang simply watched, tapping her foot teasingly, loud enough for Lightning to hear the growing impatience of her lover. Lightning tugged out the keys and threw the huntress a glare before tucking the key inside the lock and turned. "What are you in such a hurry for?" Lightning asked with a huff. Fang followed the soldier into the home, kicking the door closed nonchalantly as she made her way into the home. "Well are we going to talk about it?"

"Talk about what?" Lightning returned. Fang sighed and grabbed the soldier by her wrist, leading her to the couch and seated the two beside one another as Fang never lost eye contact. "With what I'm going to do with my life now. I've never lived a life free of a focus ever since I was a child back in Oerba and it's not like I can exactly go back there now can I?" Lightning sighed before breaking away from Fang's gaze as she stared down at her lap. The soldier's hand sneaked over to find her counter parts, intertwining their fingers together as she started to speak.

"I wanted to wait a while longer before everyone started to find out you came back but I know you don't like to just sit around." Lightning glanced up from her lap to Fang. "If you want I can speak to Amodar about getting you placed in our guard duty patrol, there was three of us but one of our guys got injured pretty bad by a gorgonoscopid pack and he's going to be out for a few months. It's not much but it would give you something to do for a few months, maybe Amodar will even make you a permanent member once he sees how amazing you are."

Fang threw Lightning a smile as her hold on the pinkette's hand tightened. "That sounds great love. I'm sure the old bones are a bit rusty so maybe this job will get them tuned back in where they need to be yeah?" Lightning returned the smile and nodded. Fang followed Lightning's eyes for a moment before something clicked in the back of her mind, remembering the last few parts of Lightning's sentence. "So you said there was three of you right? Who was the third?"

Lightning looked up to Fang this time with a questioning look as to why it mattered. "Eliza Fellwood, she joined the Corps about the same time I returned, she's not like the rest of the amateur idiots I normally get paired up with. She won't be slowing us down." Fang was utterly amazed at the words coming out of her lovers mouth, Lightning actually -praising- another beside herself and Serah? This girl must be pretty good to have the great Lightning Farron put a good word in for her. Fang chuckled and continued to eye the woman.

"My my, should I feel threatened? You speak pretty highly about this girl and that's not like you. I sure hope my Farron wasn't smitten around while I was gone hmm?" Fang teased. Lightning glared back at Fang, tugging her hand away from under Fang's before she turned her head to look away. "S-Shut up Fang It wasn't like that! You know how I felt when you were gone, I just needed a friend at the time and she wasn't completely useless like the rest and we just seemed to get along easily."

Fang let a faint smile cross her lips as she gently placed a hand on the soldiers shoulder. "I'm happy that you were able to find someone that you could relate to and actually become good friends with. I guess I should be grateful that it happened, if I never returned then maybe you two could have.." Fang was cut off as Lightning tugged her shoulder away from Fang's grasp as the soldier got up from couch rapidly before turning to glare back at the pulsian.

"If you never returned then maybe we could what?! Fall in love? Did nothing I said to you the morning you came back mean anything? Fang there was never going to be anyone to replace you because there is nobody like you, I only loved you and you alone! Apparently you are either too stupid or blind to see that or you just never trusted me to begin with." Fang opened her mouth to speak but before she could even get a word out the soldier already stormed out of the living room and started headed towards her room.

Fang let out a sigh, realizing how stupid she had to be to actually say that. The huntress was about to get up from the couch and go after the pinkette until Lightning returned back from the living room with her gunblade holstered around her hip and made a steady pace to the door. Fang pulled herself up from the couch and started to follow the woman before she went off and do something assumingly stupid. The huntress extended her hand out to grip the soldier at her wrist and Lightning twisted back from the door and Fang cringed, preparing herself for some sort of retaliation.

Fang slowly started to ease down as no blow came, instead Lightning balled her hands into fists and proceeded to stare down at the floor. "Light.." Was all Fang could muster up as Lightning slowly tilted her head up, meeting Fang's gaze for just a moment before turning back towards the door. "Save it. I don't want to hear anything you have to say right now..Just leave me alone." The soldier then gripped at the door knob, twisted the handle and tugged the door open as she exited, slamming the door behind her.

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Vanille sat closely beside Hope on Serah and Snow's couch as the whole group decided to watch a movie after Hope was finally able to welcome Vanille back. Serah instantly found some romantic drama move while flickering through the channels and Hope and Snow was dreading every second of it, while Vanille was a little more into the film than Serah as the smaller pulsian had Hope's arm captive while cuddling next to the silver haired man. Hope looked beside him to Vanille as his face was starting to break out in a deep crimson blush, thankfully Vanille was so into the movie she didn't even notice Hope was staring at her.

After three years, Vanille still looked exactly the same he thought. Hope started to wonder if she always looked this way, even before when she completed her first focus 500 years ago. Hope couldn't help but think what it would have been like for him if he never aged, stayed the same for hundreds of years, for some reason the idea didn't really appeal that much to him. Vanille at some point turned her attention away from the television and caught Hope in the act, causing the young red-head to snicker in response. "Are you wanting to watch the movie or me?" She teased.

Hope instantly turned away as the blush forming around his cheeks started to shade a darker color. "N-No I'm sorry. It's just when I look at you it feels like the past three years never happened, like our whole journey ended just the other day." Vanille smiled as she slowly reached her hand over and on top of Hope's, slicking her fingers between his. "Does it? I wish I could have been there the past few years, watching you grow up to be the very attractive young man I always imagined you to be."

Hope chuckled nervously as his attention went back to the movie, not exactly for sure how to handle the pulsian's advances. If Hope even dared to kiss Vanille on the forehead Fang would have his head on a pike no doubt, yet it was starting to become much more difficult to contain himself as Vanille continued to press her chest against his arm. Making matters worse, Vanille rested her head on the tip of the silver-haired man's shoulder as she continued to watch the movie before slightly whispering .

"So what do you think about the movie so far?" Hope jumped slightly at the darker tone of the red-head's voice before taking his time to carefully think of a response. "O-Oh it's umm..alright so far." Hope mentally face-palmed at how lame that reply was but it was the best he could come up with at the moment. Vanille cuddled closer to the man's side, humming softly as if she was slowly drifting asleep. "We should go on a date like that sometime, I've never been to a restaurant like that one before."

The restaurant the young pulsian was referring to was a fancy out-doors restaurant that held a band, a chandelier hanging from the indoor bar, and everybody all seemed to be wearing very expensive suits. Hope was lucky he landed a job at the Guardian Corps to become a field medic and was making more than plenty to sustain himself, so maybe it wouldn't be too bad after all to bring Vanille out to a place like that, assuming he had Fang's consent that is.

"Yeah sure..Sounds good." With that, Vanille hummed quietly and snoozed off while leaning further into Hope's side. The young silver-haired man looked over across the living room to the couple, making a silent plea for help as the two just stared at him with a faint smile, Serah giggled uncontrollably as she got a closer look at Hope's fully crimsoned-colored cheeks as the young man turned to face them. Hope let out a sigh before whispering. "Guys this isn't funny, if Fang were to see Vanille this close to me she would have killed me by now. I don't know what to do."

Serah finally halted with her giggling, settling it down to a small hum before speaking. "There's nothing you can do, it looks like she's made up her mind. We have faith in you though, Fang will surely be okay with it, right Snow?" Snow chuckled slightly before giving a apologetic look to the young man. "Let's sure hope so. I've fought alongside Fang and she's definitely not someone you would want to be on the opposing end of. So good luck champ, you'll need it." Snow spoke with a cocky smile, giving the young man a thumbs-up as if it was supposed to motivate him in some way. Hope sighed once more and brought his face into his palms, his life was about to be over.

xxx

Lightning marched through the entrance of the bar, instantly searching for a empty bar stool seat as she forcefully made her way through the crowd. The soldier shoved her way through the crowd and went to take a seat, signaling the bartender over. The older-looking bartender looked to be about six feet and five inches high with a orange beard that completely covered the majority of his face with some pretty impressive bushy side burns connecting to the edges of his mustache. The bearded man approached the soldier from across the counter, wiping the edges of a clean cup with a cloth as he spoke with a faint wheeze in his voice. "Ah miss Farron it's been a while since you've been down here at my bar, something unpleasant happen recently?" Lightning propped her elbows on top of the table and sighed. "I don't really want to talk about it right now Bartrand."

Bartrand looked down at the woman with a fatherly concern, eagerly wanting to prod further to help ease the soldier but decided to let it go for the time being. "Fair enough. What'll it be then lass? The usual?" Lightning only looked down at her hands and nodded as Bartrand bent down below the counter, tugging out a fresh shot glass, and set the glass on top of the counter. The older man proceeded to pop open a bottle of whiskey and rested the cylinder right across from the glass. "This one will be on the house, if you need anything else just give me a holler." Lightning nodded gratefully. "Thanks Bartrand."

With that, the bartender went about to tend the other customers and before Lightning could even get her hands on the bottle, it was snatched away from her by a woman sitting beside her. The pinkette was in no mood to deal with teasing and turned around on her stool, ready to unleash a severe tongue lashing but stopped herself as she realized it was Eliza sitting across from her this whole time. Eliza waved the bottle teasingly in front of Lightning before setting the cylinder back down on the counter, just enough distance that it was out of the soldiers reach.

"Light how many times do I have to tell you, alcohol never solves anything it just makes matters worse. You know if something was bothering you this much you could have at least called me and told me what was going on. After working together for so long I was hoping you considered me to be a friend at least by now. I'm pretty heartbroken honestly." Eliza proceeded to put on a puppy face and Lightning only scoffed and looked away. "Shut up. I don't like to bother people with my own problems and that includes you, now can you give me my drink back now?"

Eliza propped a hand up on the table and rested her chin on the center of the woman's palm and imitated being in deep thought. "Hmmm..I don't think so. How about instead of trying to drink away all your problems like you normally do, or maybe try being like a normal human being and talk about them?" Lightning gave the woman a glare, she only acknowledged her presence a few minutes ago and was already getting sick of her, she was worse than Fang at times. Speaking of Fang, why would she even assume Lightning was anywhere near attracted to her squad member?

Lightning gave the woman a quick look over and reminded herself of what she actually looked like. The girl was about five feet and six inches tall, ocean blue eyes, straight brown hair that fell to shoulder-length, a medium sized C-cup bust size, very thin and slightly more muscular than Lightning as well as a darker skin tone complexion, though still rather pale. Eliza seemed to be pretty plain and ordinary, someone the soldier could never find herself to be in a relationship with.

Lightning quickly darted her eyes from Eliza, hoping the woman didn't notice and shot a glance towards the women's own beverage. "Water? Why would you come all the way to a bar just to drink water? Can't you just do that at your house?" The brunette chuckled before responding. "Of course but what would I do without this fascinating crowd that's always around to keep me amused? It's better than staying at home all day watching television or whatever people do anymore. I guess I'm one of the few people that actually look forward to coming into work every day, feels like I'm actually a part of something rather than being a drone sitting in front of a screen all day."

Lightning sighed and rolled her eyes. She did have a point. However Lightning came to the bar to escape her feelings, not talk with the one person that Fang thought she would end up with if the pulsian had never returned. The reminder of the thought brought a bitter taste to the soldiers lips, reaching instinctively toward her bottle to wash away the taste but only to be reminded the bottle was stolen away and was currently gripping at the air before she turned her head to give Eliza another glare before speaking.

"Look I didn't come here to talk Eliza, I just want some time to myself and think about things is all. Now just give me my damn drink back already!" The squad member eyed the soldier with a worried expression before giving a aggravated huff. "No. As I said alcohol won't do anything to help you Light. Can you please just talk to me?" Eliza spoke as she reached a hand towards the soldiers, giving it a reassuring squeeze.

Lightning had enough at this point, she didn't want to talk about her problems with anyone, especially the woman who she thought responsible for this whole mess and just wanted to get out. The soldier flung her hand away from the brunettes and was quick to retrieve her bottle from the woman's side before getting up from the stool. "Don't touch me! I'm not in the mood to talk about anything with you right now."

With that, Lightning took a deep breath and tried to calm down for a moment as she realized how harsh she was being on the girl. "I'm just a little stressed out is all okay? Nothing you need to be concerned about. Anyway I'm leaving, it's starting to get late so I'll see you at work next week." Lightning then turned around and disappeared through the crowd, heading towards the exit as Eliza watched on and let out a defeated sigh. The squad member then turned around in her seat to face the counter and picked a toothpick from a nearby basket, using the small object to swirl her water as she gazed into the liquid with her head propped up by the women's right hand. "I wish she could just see it already..Please just talk to me Light.."

xxx

Fang stared up at the ceiling as she lay sprawled out on the couch and was currently lost in her thoughts. The huntress knew she slipped up with her wording but she was still confused as to why Lightning was still so upset with her over something so little. All she meant by it was she just wanted Lightning to be happy no matter what happened, even if it meant letting go on the smallest chance that she and Vanille would wake up again in their lifetime. Even if it was only three years, Lightning never once gave up on the thought of the two returning and just the thought brought a smile to the pulsians lips. She was lucky to be the one Lightning Farron had chosen to be her lover.

Though this also raises another question, how is this going to affect their jobs? Lightning never was the type to let her personal feelings take priority over her tasks, so maybe she had nothing to worry about after all. However the image of Lightning being with this mysterious woman started to make Fang a little uneasy and she couldn't quiet put a finger on what it was. She herself had been in many relationships back when she was growing up in Oerba and all the women she was with never seemed to care about openly sharing so the term jealousy was pretty foreign to her.

Lightning was different though, unlike anyone she ever met, someone that was her exact equal. The huntress started to feel everyone else in all of Gran Pulse was not worthy of being called her lover and Fang was determined to keep her promise. The huntress was pulled out of her thoughts as she heard some disgusting sounds coming from outside the door, it sounded as if someone was puking. Fang quickly hopped off from the couch and rushed towards the door, swinging it open to reveal the pinkette hunched over, hurling over the grass patch right next to the steps. "Lightning?!"

xxx

**Authors Notes: Here is another update for you guys! Again I apologize for the wait, finding jobs sure can take up a lot of time, as did FFXIV xD. Also yes I did decide to bring in a OC into this story, it was highly debated at first but I've had a great idea for this character for a while and I have high hopes she'll be making quiet the impact soon. **

**Also I would like to make a spot here for Roxyroxas1313 for the continued support and she's really a awesome person, you guys should totally check out her FLight fic. As always guys I do appreciate all your kind reviews and your support, it means the world to me and you guys make me strive to become a better writer each and every chapter. Please keep the reviews coming and tell me what you guys think, this story is for you all! Love you guys.**


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8: The Apology

Fang quickly leapt out from the door way of the home and ran toward Lightning as the pinkette started to stumble. The huntress spread out her arms and caught the drunken soldier with ease before holding the woman for a moment before gently resting a hand on the center of the soldier's back, working as a safeguard as Fang slowly started to guide her back into the home. "Light what the hell were you thinkin?! Going out and getting yourself drunk senseless? Why?!" The pinkette struggled to tilt her head up to stare up at the pulsian currently keeping her balanced and just huffed. "I don't need you..hic..to babysit me...hic..leave me alone silly."

Fang quirked a brow at the soldier's slanted words and random bursts of laughter. The huntress didn't need any more convincing that the soldier was drunk off her ass. Fang only shook her head and guided the giggling pinkette toward the nearby couch until Lightning started to gag and the pulsian already knew what was coming next. The pulsian quickly dragged Lightning with her to the bathroom and practically kicked the door open, rushing Lightning in shortly after and pulled back the sweating pink strands from her face as she proceeded to hurl down into the toilet.

Fang knelled down behind the soldier after Lightning was done cleaning out her stomach and flushed down the vomit. The huntress leaned the soldier toward her chest before gently folding her arms around the woman's waist as the huntress softly ran her fingers through the pink strands. "Dear Etro how much did you have to drink? You weigh as much as a toothpick!" Lightning wiggled around in Fang's grasp, attempting to escape but was very quick to give up the fight and sigh. "Shut your mouth..hic..I can drink as much as I want to! Let me go or I'll show you what a toothpick can do!"

Fang only rolled her eyes and pulled the woman closer to her, bringing her forehead down to snuggle through the pink strands and rested against the back of the woman's head before whispering. "Calm down love and stop moving around so much you'll only upset your stomach worse." Lightning weakly attempted to wiggle out of the bear-like grasp once more but was only met with the same result shortly after. "Why so you can take advantage of me? Do things to me..hic..while I'm all defenseless and vulnerable..hic..have some dignity!"

Fang let out a heavy sigh and just continued to hold onto her lover. To make sure Lightning was safe and secure even if it meant she would have to stay up all night with her if she had to. Hell it was her fault that Lightning went and did this to herself, all because she slipped up and said something so stupid to Lightning. Now Fang was ready to take responsibility for her own idiotic actions. The huntress wrapped her arms around the soldiers middle, easing the pinkette into her chest further and to her surprise, Lightning actually started to snuggle back into her.

The pulsian's lips twitched at the response and brought her hands up back to Lightning stomach as they proceeded to massage the belly with skilled, gentle fingers. Fang could practically hear Lightning purring as the soldiers weight started to sink into her chest, giving the huntress a good indication that Lightning was starting to doze off. Fang continued the attention to the soldiers belly as she started to whisper once again. "I'd never take advantage of you like that Light..I'm so sorry that this happened..I should have never said anything so stupid..I should have went after you damn it and prevented this. Please forgive me..."

Fang felt a deep stabbing pain at the center of her heart as she briefly opened her eyes, only to meet a trail of tears dripping down her tanned cheeks. The pulsian couldn't even remember the last time she felt her own tears fall like this, or even the last time she balled for that matter. She was always supposed to be strong for Vanille growing up, she had to steel her resolve and never show weakness of any form. With Vanille, Fang was always in control, always there to protect her younger adoptive sibling but Lightning was a whole different story.

Fang thought she had the soldier all figured out after their whole l'cie journey but tonight proved she had much more to learn and would definitely not let something like this happen again. Fang would just have to apologize in the morning and try to do whatever she could to make up for this mistake. With that in mind the huntress brought her cheek to rest against Lightning's left shoulder, using the rhythm of the soldiers breathing as a lullaby and found herself falling asleep in minutes.

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_Earlier that night..._

Eliza nursed from the glassed water cup gradually while being lost deep in her thoughts. Lightning was constantly on her mind the past few weeks and it hadn't taken the young brunette very long to figure out why, she realized she was madly in love with the pinkette. The young soldier tried multiple times in the past to confess her hidden feelings for Lightning but the timing was always off somehow. Light would never give Eliza much of a break during their patrols, it was one creature after another, no breaks, it was as if the woman was upset about something and just wanted to use the job as a outlet.

There was that issue at work, then there was situations off the job like tonight where Lightning would not even bother to talk to Eliza about anything on her day off. The farron hardly ever returned her phone calls, bothered to visit, or even just sit down and have a nice conversation. It broke her heart. All the brunette wanted to do was help Light in any way she could, Eliza could easily see Lightning was hurting, though the cause of the pain was still unknown to her, probably always would be. Even with all these obstacles, giving up was never a option. She will confess to Lightning how she feels but only when the timing is perfect.

Eliza was torn away from her thoughts as Bartrand dipped some more ice cold water down into the woman's half-full glass and gave brunette a concerned gaze followed with a aggravated sigh. "You two kids are killin' me. Why don't ya just tell the soldier girl how you feel? I'm getting tired of you coming out here and moping all damn day every time this happens. 'Liza you're a stunning lass, you have nothing to worry about, just catch her alone one night and open up. Have some confidence will ya?"

Eliza chuckled before gripping the middle of the cup and brought the glass to her lips, taking a quick swig before dropping it back down. "It's not a confidence issue it's just..I don't exactly know when would be a good time to express myself. She is always busy doing something after work, even when we are patrolling I still can't even get through to her. I'll figure out something though I'm sure." The brunette gazed up to Bartrand, her lips twitching into a smile. "Thanks for the advice though. I don't know what I would do without you old man."

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_The following morning..._

Vanille's eye lids squinted open as the pulsian sunlight beamed through the window shades and caused the small woman to groan out in displeasure. The red-head brought her tiny hands upward to rub at her closed eyelids, rubbing away the fog from her vision and when she opened her eyes, she took a quick glance around the room. How did she end up back in the spare bedroom? The last thing the pulsian remembered was snuggling up next to Hope on the couch while they all watched a movie. She must have dozed off sometime during the film and hadn't realized it.

Oh wait, if she fell asleep beside Hope, was he the one that carried her into this room? Vanille quickly lifted up the covers to check herself and huffed out a relieved sigh as she was still fully clothed. She highly doubted Hope would have taken advantage of her like that but the boy was older now, so the idea was not all that unlikely. The young red-head stretched her arms out and followed with a yawn, ending with a very cute audible squeak and pounced off the bed before heading out her bedroom door.

Vanille instantly smelled something delicious emanating from the kitchen after taking a few steps into the hallway and hurried off into the living room, peeking toward the kitchen to find Serah cooking this time around. Serah looked up from the sizzling skillet to find Vanille watching her and smiled. "Morning! I'm making some scrambled eggs and I got some waffles in the toaster. I'm not making too much since Snow is probably going to be sleeping in today and I'm going to visit sis later today." Vanille grinned and skipped into the kitchen, halting right beside Serah. "Sounds good! Do you need any help making breakfast? After we finish I can go with you if that's alright? I want to see how whipped Fang's gotten." The red-head chirped.

The two young girls shared a giggle before Serah pointed over to the toaster where a small plate already had a small building stack of waffles. "Sure thing! If you really want to help can you toss some more waffles into the toaster and make a separate stack with some cinnamon sprinkled on them? Snow prefers them that way, I'm going to box some for him for when he wakes up. Also I don't mind if you come along, I only hope they are decent when we get there." Vanille giggled, nodding as she skipped over to the toaster and reached up to the cupboards above her to tug out another plate. "Decent? I wouldn't count on it!"

xxx

Lightning rustled slightly before bellowing out a painful groan. It felt almost as if her skull took a direct blow from a juggernaught's fist. If the constant thudding pain in her head wasn't enough, the blinding light searing through the curtains was definitely not helping to soothe the pain. Now that Lightning thought about it, she placed up shades in her room to block out all the sunlight and why was someone's arms around her waist? Lightning was about to panic before she dropped her head down to view her captors arms and found them to be a familiar tanned shade. It was Fang. Lightning huffed out a breath of relief before sinking back into pulsian's arms. The soldier then proceeded to wonder how she even ended up in the bathroom? The last thing she remembered was talking to Eliza back at the bar and then storming off shortly after. She really needed to take the woman's advice and stop drinking.

Lightning could feel Fang's head slowly lift off from her shoulder and could hear the pulsian's heavenly-like accent gently speak into the soldier's ear. "Morning love. How are ya feelin'?" Lightning could only respond with a grunt before weakly turning in the huntress's arms and buried her face into the pulsian's shoulder, shielding her eyes from the blinding light. Fang lightly chuckled before she brought her chin down to rest on the top of Lightning's head as her hands traced down the soldier's spine.

"Listen Light..I really want to apologize for what I said last night. I didn't think anything through when I said it and I didn't mean for it to come out that way. I only want you to be happy Light, no matter what happens and that's what I was-" Fang was abruptly cut off as Lightning's fingertips brushed against the huntress's lips, lightly stroking them before they lazily trailed down her chin. The soldier peeked up from the huntress's shoulder before lightly whispering. "I am happy Fang..I'm happy with you. I'm happy that you came back to me after I thought you was gone from my life forever. Fang you are the only one I could ever see myself being with and you should know that."

Fang couldn't help but smile at the soldier's words before dropping her forehead down, brushing it against the pinkette's while her hands came up to cup the soldier's cheeks lightly. "I know that now love and I feel the exact same way. However that still doesn't make up for what happened last night when you got yourself smashed like that. It's my fault all that happened and I'll make up for it, I promise. Just I beg you Light, please don't do anything stupid like that again?"

Lightning muffled out a small chuckle while snuggling deeper into Fang's warmth. "I don't have any plans on drinking ever again after this." Fang shared a laugh with the soldier before the huntress pushed herself onto her knees and slowly started to pull herself up along with Lightning. "Come on now, we can't stay in here all day, we should probably get you to a bed. More comfy than using my chest as a pillow yeah?"

Lightning grunted, showing no resistance as Fang literally had to pull the soldier up from the ground and into a standing position. The pulsian knew all too well that the soldier was in no condition to walk, knowing that the soldier could probably only muster about two steps before tripping over herself and possibly getting injured in the process. Fang wouldn't have any of that. So the pulsians strong arms looped down and scooped Lightning up into a bridal position and proceeded to exit the room, heading down the hall and into the soldiers bedroom.

Lighting's arms instinctively hooked around Fang's neck as her whole body was scooped up. The action was so random and quick that she felt her stomach start to cringe, the vomit starting to rush upward not long after. Thankfully for Fang, Lightning was able to catch it before it reached her mouth and managed to swallow it back down. It was a good thing she didn't eat too much the night before, otherwise it would have been much worse she imagined. Fang made her way down the length of the hallway and twisted the door open to the pinkette's room. The huntress gave no hesitation before entering the surprisingly girly-like room and dropped the soldier down gently onto the soft feathered mattress.

Fang eyed the soldier for a few minutes to monitor her condition further to make sure she had no immediate need to puke up the rest of her insides before heading outside the door and towards the bathroom. The pulsian searched through the many drawers and cabinets inside the small room to search for a cloth to water down before finally stumbling upon a nice pair of folded towels and rags.

Fang instantly grabbed a small pink rag, finding it the most fitting, and brought it up to the sink to water the cloth down with some cold water. The huntress wasted no time in watering down the cloth and rushing back down the hallway into light's room. Fang halted after only taking a few short steps into the room to find the pinkette already fast asleep once again. Chuckling to herself at the image, Fang sauntered off to the bed and bent over, giving the soldiers forehead a smooch.

She held the kiss there for what seemed like an hour before hesitantly pulling away, replacing her lips with the rag before it started to dry out and lose its effect. Lightning only mumbled and wiggled around slightly in response and Fang only watched the woman with a smile. "I'll let you sleep love. It's the least I can do after what I did.." The woman's lips switched to a disappointed frown at the reminder as she lifted herself from the bed and headed outside the soldiers room as quietly as she could without waking her. Fang proceeded to quietly close the door to the soldiers room and made her way back down into the living room while becoming lost in her thoughts. She really needed to be more careful next time, so that incidents like this won't happen again. Lightning deserved the best and nothing less, Fang was determined to give that to her.

_xxx_

_Later that morning..._

Serah and Vanille had just finished their breakfast, now currently was busy cleaning the few dishes they used while there was a sudden knock at the door. The two girls shared a look before Serah dropped the dish she was currently cleaning back into the sink as the smaller farron made her way to the door. "It's probably not Fang and my sister is it? I doubt they would be up this early, especially with Lightning being on vacation and from what they have been doing recently..." Serah shivered at the reminder before reaching toward the door knob and twisted it open. To her surprise, it was neither of who she expected, instead Eliza was standing at her doorstep.

"Hey Serah..I'm sorry to bother you this early in the morning but I was wondering if Lightning ever came here last night? I've been trying to call her but she hasn't been answering. She seemed a little off last night at the bar." Serah's eyes widened at the latter part of the sentence. Why in the world was her sister back at the bar again? She understood why she made frequent visits there back before Fang returned, even with her constant protests to urge her sister not to drink herself down in depression, but now? What reason would she have to return there now?

Serah shook the thoughts away before stepping back. "Oh I'm sorry, please come on in!" Eliza nodded her head gratefully before entering the home as Serah closed the door behind her as the two walked over to the couch. "To answer your question she never stopped by last night. Though why was she at the bar? Did she tell you? I don't understand why after -" Vanille interrupted the smaller farron as she skipped into the room and practically yelled. "Fang probably said or did something she shouldn't have. Back in stasis the memories and thoughts we shared...Fang can really get pretty twisted when she -" Serah's face flushed to a complete shade of pink before glaring back up at Vanille. "I told you I don't want to hear any of that! It's my sister were talking about here."

Eliza looked between the two girls in confusion before finally starting to speak up. "Fang? You mean one of the pulsians that saved Cocoon from falling into Gran Pulse? So that means you must be.." Vanille smiled and practically chirped. "Yup! Oerba Dia Vanille here in the flesh! The famous heroine that saved both Cocoon and Gran Pulse from utter doom!" Vanille proceeded to strike a pose that made Serah and Eliza both giggle. "I see. Well it's a pleasure to meet you miss heroine! My name is Eliza Fellwood. I work in the same squad as Lightning, I met Serah through her actually. She used to bring Lightning lunch over all the time before we would go out in the field, I would hope to consider us friends but I wouldn't want to assume anything."

Serah giggled and waved her arms in response. "Of course we are! We used to talk pretty often before Lightning told me to stop fussing over her lunches. I guess she won't have to worry about that anymore with Fang around to make lunch for her." Vanille chuckled as she started to join in. "Fang making Lightning lunch? I'd love to see that. Fangs too lazy to even make herself lunch most of the time! When we was growing up she would just go out and hunt a gorgonoscopid and bring it home for the maiden to skin and cook." Serah glanced back over at Vanille and huffed in response. "Have you seen my sisters cooking? She burns anything she touches. When we was kids I had to force down whatever she cooked until I started to become old enough to prepare meals myself."

As the two girls went back and forth about their sisters culinary skills, Eliza pondered about what Serah talked about in the very beginning. Was Fang romantically involved with Lightning? They are living together apparently and Lightning did talk about the older pulsian quiet a bit, more so than the other l'cie. Though how Lightning described Fang, she made it seem as if the pulsian was insufferable, at least at first. Lightning never told Eliza about any romantic involvement with Fang and she never asked. It wasn't any of her business to know. Though if those two are together...

"What about your family Eliza? You never mentioned them before I don't think." Eliza jumped slightly at the sound of Serah's voice and turned to meet the woman gaze with a weak smile. "Well my father never cooked and I was a only child. I tried to cook for my parents but I was never great at it myself." Vanille quirked her brow before blurting out. "What about your mother?" Eliza's expression instantly changed to a dark, depressed feature at the mention.

"My mother was a great cook. Every meal was always delicious and there was never a day I hadn't looked forward to find out what she made next. Whenever I got high scores on my school exams she always made this lovely lemon cake to celebrate. She tried to teach me when I was about thirteen but I never could really pick it up the way she did. She started at a much earlier age when she attempted to teach me however, my grandmother worked in a few five star restaurants back in her day. I guess cooking has always ran in the family but there is always a few bad apples down the tree right?"

Serah's lips slanted into a frown before reaching over to caress Eliza's shoulder. "Oh don't say that! I'm sure you're a amazing cook! Even if someone is not that great at one thing doesn't mean they are a bad apple, everybody has stuff their bad and great at. I mean both you and my sister are great at fighting, especially if Amodar put you in the same squad as Lightning knowing you could keep up with her!"

Eliza forced herself to smile at that before waving her arms in protest. "I'm not all that great but thank you. Also I apologize, I didn't mean to ruin the mood when you asked me that." Vanille shook her head. "No It's okay, I probably shouldn't have asked." Eliza looked over to Vanille and back to Serah before rising up from the couch and headed towards the door. "I should probably be heading back, work starts in about a hour and I like to be somewhat early. If you happen to see Lightning today tell her I stopped by for me please?"

Serah nodded as her and Vanille both rose up from the couch as well to follow Eliza out. "Yeah we were planning on visiting them later today anyway, I'll make sure to let her know." Eliza smiled and nodded, extending her arms open to briefly hug Serah. Serah smiled warmly and returned the gesture before Eliza gently pulled away and headed out the door. "Thanks! I really appreciate it. Take it easy Serah and it was nice meeting you Vanille!" Vanille waved out the door and yelled. "You as well!"

Serah waited a few moments before closing the door and turned to Vanille. "That was the first time Eliza has ever visited me in months and every time she comes over it's about my sister. I'm still confused as to why Lightning was even drinking to begin with. All of this makes no sense." Vanille giggled. "Try not to think about it too much, they probably just had a small argument or something. Besides we'll find out later tonight won't we?"

xxx

**Authors Notes: Here is once again another update for you guys! Now first things first, I have never been drunk personally nor have I witnessed that many people drunk so I apologize if the drunk lightning seems poorly done or just seems off. Another thing I want to apologize for is how long it took to get this chapter out there! I have been very distracted the past few weeks as a lot of things started to pop up but everything is starting to get back under control now. So with all that said, my posting schedule should be back to normal, normal being 1-2 chapters every two weeks. **

**Overall with this chapter it served more of a purpose to elaborate further into what happened last chapter and to give you guys a little bit more knowledge on Eliza's past. In the following chapter I will bring more light into what happened in Eliza's past, not all of which is very good but you'll find out soon! Also I mentioned something in the very beginning chapters about providing more action scenes for you guys and I meant it! Beginning with Chapter 9, action scenes will start to become regular throughout the duration of the story. As always, I appreciate all the kind and loving feedback, support, and advice from you guys and I really do hope to hear more from you all soon! I hope you all enjoyed the chapter and the story so far!**


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